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MATERNAL MORTALITY
The enquiries into maternal deaths, which the Ministry of Health has required to be
conducted, has not called for any particular organisation in my Department With a small
City resident population, few deaths in this category are reported Where such cases do
occur, investigations are conducted by me No case was reported during 1934
It may be of interest to note that, from 1900 to 1934 inclusive, only 16 maternal deaths
have occurred amongst City residents
NUTRITION
A report of a conference between representatives of the Advisory Committee on Nutrition
of the Ministry of Health and the representatives of a Committee appointed by the British
Medical Association was issued during 1934
It will be remembered that a mountain was made of a molehill in that there appeared,
to the uninformed, to be a difference of opinion between experts on nutrition on a matter
of fact—of fact easily ascertained and, indeed, already long common knowledge among
those whose business it is to know This difference could not exist in reality, and cross
purposes which could give rise to its apparent existence are set out in the report
The Advisory Committee was giving an average " man value " of energy used at 3,000
units per diem The British Medical Association was giving a " man value " applying to
a man in active work of 3,400 units The average " man value " implies difference in
physique, personal habits, likes and dislikes, variation in muscular effort involved in different
occupations, clothing, climate, and every other factor varying that output of energy and
intake of food which can be exactly balanced for the individual man Moreover, the figure
is intended as a rough guide to institutional officers
The British Medical Association Committee was determining the minimum weekly
expenditure on foodstuffs which must be incurred by families of varying size if health and
working capacity are to be maintained, and was constructing specimen diets
Roughly, the one implies the figure for an average man, and the other for a man at work
of a moderately strenuous nature
The Committees are in full agreement on a sliding scale—from 4,000 calories for heavy
work to 2,600 for light work in a man, 3,000 to 2,600 similarly for a woman, and so on for
various ages down the scale Also that the all-round average requirements of the entire
population, or of large mixed groups of people, are about 3,000 calories per diem
The report, which is of extreme interest, is not of immediate practical use to the Public
Health Committee in the absence of institutional supervision