ART. 43] STATE REGISTRAR OF VITAL STATISTICS. 1199

of health throughout the State; he shall, when requested by
local boards, visit their respective districts, cities or villages to
investigate the cause of any existing disease, and shall, from
time to time, and whenever directed by the governor or legis-
lature, make special inspections of public hospitals, asylums,
prisons and other institutions, and shall, at each session of
the legislature, submit, through the board, a full report of his
investigations, with such suggestions and recommendations as
he may deem proper; he shall, when required by the governor
or other proper authorities, advise in regard to the location,
drainage, water supply, disposal of excrement, heating and
ventilation of any public institution or building belonging to
the State; he shall collect information concerning vital statistics,
prevailing diseases and the general hygiene of the State, and
through an annual report and otherwise, as the board may
direct, shall disseminate such information among the people;
he shall receive from the treasury, in monthly payments, an
annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, to be paid on the
warrant of the comptroller out of any money in the treasury
not otherwise appropriated.

State Registrar of Vital Statistics.

1688, art. 43, sec. 6. 1880, ch. 438, sec. 7. 1898, ch. 312.
6. The secretary of the State board of health shall be the
State registrar of vital statistics for Maryland; he shall, under
the direction of the State board of health, prepare the necessary
methods, books and forms for accurate registration of births
and deaths, and shall supply the local registrars, health officers,
ministers, physicians, undertakers, mid-wives and other persons
charged with any duty under this section, the proper blanks,
forms and books of record. The State registrar shall collect,
tabulate and preserve the records of the vital statistics of the
State. Annually, in the month of January, he shall prepare a
general abstract and report of the vital statistics for the pre-
ceding year, so tabulated and arranged as to render them of
practical utility, and shall have printed not more than one
thousand copies, of which he shall forward five copies each to
the governor and the State librarian, one to each member of the
general assembly of Maryland, one to each local registrar of
vital statistics, one to the board of health of each State and
territory of the United States, and the remainder to such
departments, libraries and persons as may seem to the State
registrar entitled to the same.