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51
honest in purpose, who will guard the avenues down which creep the
beginnings of bodily and mentally disintegrating forces.
A glance at the titles of the lectures offered free of cost by the Public
Health Committee to any organisation which is willing to incorporate
them in its programme, will sufficiently indicate the breadth of our
appeal. There are lectures which deal with many aspects of child life,
lectures which should interest women in particular, lectures which
concern youth, and a number of lectures of a varied nature, which should
interest as well as instruct any audience which is prepared to consider
questions of vital importance to the individual and citizen. It is
gratifying to note that the number of lectures given has increased during
the past year, and appreciation of them has shown itself by the demand
not for single lectures but for a course, which would enable the audience
to view a problem against a larger background. The war of education is
not spectacular, but it is sure; and the presence of enlightened bodies
of men and women in a community must sooner or later make itself felt
in an effective demand that health shall be the possession of us all. We
cannot doubt that knowledge of the incidence and spread of such a group
of diseases as "Venereal,'' one of the "killing diseases"; of Tuberculosis,
a social plague; of the functions of the human body; of the meaning and
need for preventive inoculation against diphtheria; of a sane view with
regard to sex matters—that such knowledge is a necessity which every
intelligent Authority must seek to make available is becoming increasingly
clear to all students of social affairs.
In all, 63 lectures have been given, and it is estimated that over
5,000 people attended. Again and again, members of audiences have
expressed their appreciation of the opportunity of learning more about
these vital matters, which has been provided by our Health Authority,
and wished that such knowledge had been theirs years ago.