[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/416 (page 7)
    disentangle the factors influencing these epidemiological results, but no doubt the contracting sources of human infection have contributed. It will be observed that the greatest fall has taken place in abdominal tuberculosis, a fact of considerable significance, as these are mostly bovine in origin. Although something has been accomplished under the Tuberculosis Order in eliminating grosser disease from among dairy herds, such a wholesale improvement can scarcely.be credited to this cause. It appears much more likely that the greatly increased practice of pasteurisation of ordinary City milk, to which 80 to 90 per cent, of the supply has been subjected for some years, has inter- posed some degree of protection against transmission of this form of tuberculous infection. This is a subject which is worthy of the fullest investigation as part of the very vital question of the relation of pasteurisation of milk to the public welfare. Blind Persons Act.—Considerable progress has been made, under Dr. J. L. Halliday, in the arrangements for the certification of blind persons, and, with the approval of the Joint Committee for Glasgow and the South-West of Scotland, a special clinic was opened at the end of August in the Public Health Department. This clinic is administered on a regional basis, serving a population of 2,800,000 persons. The intention is to make the clinic a certifying centre for all purposes connected with the blind, including applicants for pensions. A full description of its fimctions, the standards of certification, and the special arrangements whereby each applicant is examined by two specialists are given in the report. Child Welfare.—The infant mortahty rate has remained at the unsatisfactory figure of 107 per thousand births during the past three years. In the year under review child life was exposed to the trying experience of an epidemic of influenza associated with fog and low temperatures, a combination which finds expression in a relatively high mortahty among infants and also tends to swell the causes of death comprised in the term “ immaturity.” Had it not been for this occurrence, the mortahty rate would have been lower than last year, as there was in actual fact a reduction in mortahty due to other causes, principahy measles. As regards the child welfare scheme, the most important event was the decision of the Corporation, after receiving a comprehensive report on the whole circumstances, to add to the available maternity accommodation by the provision of a municipal maternity hospital