THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT AND LEGISLATION.
At the head of the civil medical board, which is under
the department of justice, there is a director who has a technical
and a legal adviser at his disposition, and also a staff: of medical
men and chemists. The country is divided into district and town
practices, whose holders («distriktslæge», in the towns « stadsfysikus » )
have the superintendence of medical matters, attend the sick poor
and the lunatics maintained at the public expense, supervise the
treatment of persons suffering from epidemic-diseases, etc. In every
county there is a doctor as the adviser of the authorities in
lunacy matters. This doctor has the chief superintendence of lunatics
maintained at the public expense.
In every municipality there is a board of health («sundheds-
kommission»), with the official doctor, or another doctor appointed
by the medical director as chairman. The hoard is to have its
attention turned to the sanitary condition of the place, and adopt
the necessary measures upon the outbreak of infectious diseases.
Its decisions can only he rescinded by the king or the department
of justice.
For protection against the introduction of certain dangerous
diseases, such as small-pox, cholera, yellow fever and plague, a
quarantine is enforced upon infected or suspected vessels. The state
maintains a quarantine upon Odderoen near Kristiansand ; and in
the sea-ports a quarantine commission is established, consisting of
the board of health in conjunction with one nautical and one
revenue member.
Among other measures concerning medical affairs may be
noticed the act of the 4th June, 1898, by which every corpse, before
burial, must be seen by a medical man, or by two -II in exceptional
cases only one trustworthy persons; and the act of
the 11th June, 1898, by which cremation was permitted in the
country.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Gorges officielle Statistik, especially:
Beretning om Swzdhedstilstanden og Medicinalforholdene i Norge. (Rapport
sur l'état sanitaire et médical. Résumé en français). Yearly.
Oversigt over Sindssygeasylernes Virksomhed. . ■)(Statistique des hospices
d ’aliénés). Yearly.
Beretning om de Spedalske i Norge i Femaaret 1891—95. (Rapport sur
les lépreux en Norvège pour, les années de 1891 à 1895). Kristiania. 1898.
FINANCES
FINANCES OF THE STATE.
No r w a y , after the separation from Denmark in 1814, commenced
her Existence as an independent state under very difficult
financial conditions. The country was entirely impoverished and
all the industries were languishing, and to this must be added that
the common Dano-Norwegian finances and monetary system had
got into the greatest disorder during the last years of the period
of union. The state revenues, therefore, were very scarce and also
very unreliable, inasmuch as a great number of the inhabitants of
the country were unable to pay the taxes and contributions levied
upon them. The state, on the other hand, had to charge itself
with expenses which, compared with its economic strength at the
time, were very large, partly in order to place the currency on
a stable basis, partly to cover that part of the common Dano-
Norwegian national debt which the country had to take upon
itself.I
n 1816, the paper currency circulating in the country was
ordered to be redeemed at 1/s of its face-value, that is to say
about kr. 10,000,000. The minor portion of this debt was settled
by means of a tax immediately levied on property and income,
and the rest by means of a loan obtained from the Bank of
Norway, an institution which was established at the same time;
this loan was also gradually repaid by means of a tax on property
and income,,,
As its share of the common Dano-Norwegian national debt
Norway was at once charged with the amount of kr. 6,810,000,