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140
CONCLUSION.
In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to set out some
main facts bearing upon life and health in Willesden. An annual
review of these conditions enables a measure to be taken of the vital
circumstances which most nearly are an index of the public health.
For comparative purposes this is most valuable. The social organism
is making for itself an environment adapted roughly to the hygienic
requirements imposed by the time. How far is it succeeding in
ameliorating the conditions of man's lot? Can health be sustained
in a community forced to live under the artificial conditions which
modern industrialism and commercialism have imposed 1 Since man
i6 of more importance and concern than his vogues this question is
first rate.
The answer is not easy. The Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health is for each district an attempt and a contribution to
the answer. But it is not a complete answer. Were it so, it might
emphatically be said that modern conditions are compatible not only
with sustained but with improving general health. The death rate is
reduced apace; zymotic diseases no longer claim the appalling tribute
which in the past made them veritable human scourges. On every
hand there are signs and even definite measure of improved health
and vital prospects. Yet, withal, there is abounding scepticism as to
the reality of health progress. It is indisputable that a child born
today has a prospect of life measurably greater than it would have
had a generation ago. It is unquestionable also that a child born in
a new suburb such as Willesden has a prospect of life much greater
than a child born in an older and more central part of London. But
these improvements are the outcome merely of a better environment.
So far, good. This is what the Local Health Authorities have properly