Activities  of  a  Health  Officer. — The  standard  lines  of  work
which  are  conducted  by  a  local  health  department  are  enumer-
ated on  page  22.  The  health  officer  is  the  director  of  all  these
various  activities,  and  he  often  constitutes  the  entire  field  force
of  the  municipality.  He  is  a  combination  of  health  commissioner,
medical  expert,  clerk,  plumbing  inspector,  legal  adviser,  and
chief  of  the  sanitary  police.  Wliatever  is  done,  he  must  either
do  it  himself  or  personally  oversee  it.  Whenever  an  emergency
arises,  he  must  create  an  organization  which  will  cease  to  exist
as  soon  as  conditions  are  again  normal.  The  small  volume  of
work  in  any  particular  line  does  not  justify  its  systematic  organ-
ization, but  he  attends  to  his  public  health  duties  as  a.  side  issue
to  his  regular  practice.
