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its widest sense, must never be forgotten. The years ahead are
critical, fraught with unlimited potentiality for good or ill. No
one can say that the position to-day is as satisfactory as it was in
1939. A great effort is required to make up the leeway, to ensure
that the vicious circle will finally be closed. But it is an effort which
must be made, since the future of Southgate may well depend upon
its successful application.
A great deal has recenty been made of the part which local
authorities such as Southgate can play in the reconstituted field of
public health. Much of this is interesting, a lesser amount is of
practical importance. While no one would deny that sanitary
authorities have a very significant, if restricted, role to play, their
activities must of necessity be covered by the number of staff available.
If some of the suggestions put forward are to be implemented,
there is no doubt that additional staff will have to be obtained. I
personally hope that concentration on environmental hygiene will
allow us to devote more time to such problems as field epidemiology,
housing, and food hygiene. I intend to submit a detailed report
along these lines to the Public Health Committee when the situation
has clarified itself, and when we can better assess our opportunities
for more intensive work in the fields which I have mentioned.
•
We must at all costs avoid the impression that the diminished
Public Health Department is concerned only with drains, sewers,
and the extermination of rats; that the Sanitary Inspector has been
relegated to his original role of Inspector of Nuisances. Our horizon
remains as wide as before, our task as important. If this fact is
remembered, and if we are allowed fully to explore the avenues
which lie immediately before us, definite advantage may lie in the
fact that the remaining staff of the Public Health Department is
now more or less relieved of the necessity to consider the individual
as a health entity rather than the environment which produces or
aggravates his problems.