Until the so-called sanitary reform (1978), which introduced a Beveridge system, in Italy existed a peculiar kind of general practitioner, paid by municipalities, who ensured healthcare to those not covered by social insurance. In small towns those physicians also carried out the function of Health Officers, performing Public Health duties. We had the possibility to study the very large archive of one of them, doctor Sgandurra from Farindola, a village in the Abruzzi Region (central Italy): in the paper we briefly analyse six public health acts that he issued in the first half of the 1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]