The Board of Health shall be composed of the Health Commissioner, who shall be president thereof, and seven appointed members. Three members shall be physicians, one of them having a degree of Doctor or Master of Public Health and one member shall be a dentist having a degree of Doctor or Master of Public Health.

ANNOTATION

Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article VII, Section 4.

Purposes: The development in recent years of a field of study in public health and the academic degrees awarded to those pursuing such study prompted the requirement that at least one of the physician members of the Board and the dentist member have such degrees. A dentist has been included on the Board because of the importance to public health of adequate dental facilities and care. Three members are required to be physicians because public health involves the constant application of learning in the medical sciences. Four members of the Board may be lay persons and persons whose skills and training are important in the public health field, such as sanitary engineers, nurses, and osteopaths. The Health Commissioner is made the Chairman of the Board because the Board is attached to the Department of Public Health and the regulations promulgated by the Board will be the regulations of the Department.