The Royal College of Physicians of London and Quackery.

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Royal College of Physicians of London and Quackery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The Medical Press an ’SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX.' VoL. CXLI. WEDNESDAY^ SEPTEMBER 28, 1910 Notes and Comments. ♦ The shadows of infant and child mortality still loom ominously upon the horizon of the national health. There has undoubtedly been a great deal of improvement of late years in this oarticular direction, but the most enthusias- tic optimists could not maintain that it has taken place step by step with the general advance. The problem is no't a little complicated and its solution depends upon the teachings of modern scientific knowledge to the environment of the infant and •child'. That there is a great deal yet to be done, is shown conclusively by the recently issued Report •of the Medical Department of the Local Govern- ment Board; a document that deserves the close attention of all who are interested in the important ■question under notice. One of the mo&lt striking features of the whole problem is the absolute pre- ventability of a grea;t deal of this lamentable wast^e of life. A comparison of the death-rates of children under twelve in the four worst and the four best counties in England, shows the following remarkable differences. Infantile Mortality. The worst are Glamongan with a fne Best and death-rate of 151 per 1,000, Durham •w .. ^47. Lancashire 144, and' Northum- Worst Counties.berland 143, against the four best, Hereford 74, Dorset 78, Wilts and ■Uxtord 79. Of course, there is also—probably always will be—a difference in agricultural as gainst industrial counties, but nothing that could for a moment approach the startling discrepancies shown in the above figures. Reduced to a plain statement, two babies and children die in the first four counties to every one of the last four. While such a state of affairs continues the State adminis- tration of public health in general and of the in- criminated counties in particular must remain under a heavy cloud. It means that the life of one w the two babies in the four worst counties has Men needlessly thrown away, or, at any rate has ‘Deen lost iby preventable causes. The^ Report is pregnant with sug- Wives under ^®s^veness. One of the most Ade. instructive generalisations is that all counties with a high population of wives under age, have a high infan- tile death rate. Nor could the modern gospel of sanitation hope for a finer testimonial than that contained in the following passage : “ Infant rnortality,” says the Report, “is the highest in those counties where, under urban conditions of life, sanitary conditions and scavenging are neglected, and where the streets and yards are to a large extent, not made up or paved.” Under such circumstances the air becomes charged with atmospheric dust for the most part of an organic nature, whereby food is infected, and harmful micro-organisms conveyed to human beings. We shall probably waste several more generations in the attempt to bring the human race to a common health standard by attention to environment in- stead of beginning at the right end by preventing the marriages of the unfit and thereby limiting the output of the degenerate offsprings. When Lord Robert Cecil piloted his Medical Notifi- Notification of Births Bill through the cation of Commons, he moved an amendment Births. relieving medical men from any obligations under the Bill. His pro- posal was reluctantly accepted by Mr. John Burns, but rejected by the House. The duty of notification falls on one of three persons, namely, the medical man in attendance or upon the father, if he lives in the house, or the nurse. It is provided by the Act that notice should be given by letter or post card within thirty-six hours of the birth, and that the local authority shall supply, without charge, stamped and addressed envelopes to any medical practitioner or midwife residing in their area who shall apply for same. Failure to notify has led to various prosecutions, of medical men. One satisfactory result of these proceedings has been to establish the ruling that a medical man could not be held responsible, provided he could show he had reason to believe someone else had sent in the necessary notification. How the medical man may escape this unpaid obligation, so unjusti- fiably thrust upon him by the State, is a simple matter: all he need do is to send one of the addressed official post cards to father or nurs.e with instructions to fill up and post the form. Not long ago a medical practi- . - . tioneer, at Acton, resorted to that Case in labour-saving expedient. He at- ' tended a confinement and was asked by the nurse if the Notification Act had been adopted in the district, he replied that it was in force and that either she or the father would have to send in the proper form to the Medical Officer of Health. The upshot was that no noti- fication was made and the medical man was sum- moned before the local bench. The magistrate, however, held that he had done all that was re- quired of him. They, therefore, dismissed the case and awarded the defendant five guineas cost. This pleasant method of indirect payment is hardly