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evil. It is possible to prepare leaflets which will not offend anyone,
and to give useful judicious addresses to selected audiences; medical
men lecturing to men and medical women to women. The aim will
be to dispel ignorance; to instil the fear of impure sexual intercourse;
and to impress the advantages of self-knowledge, selfrespect
and self-control. District Medical Officers of Health are
expected to do what they can to foster and promote this campaign;
and it needs the co-operation of the Press and of every public man,
medical practitioner and social worker. The National Council
for Combating Venereal Diseases is prepared to render a great
service to Administrative bodies and public workers by preparing
suitable leaflets and statements to assist lecturers, and generally
by advising upon the best expression of the educational appeal.
It will also be the duty of Local Authorities to co-ordinate and
promote the voluntary agencies employed in preventive and rescue
work.
Thus, the measures to be undertaken embrace no form of compulsion
with regard to the sufferers themselves. There is ample
justification for this; for there is no conclusive European evidence
of the diminution of the disease by coercive measures, although
many trials have been made. The compulsory examination of
prostitutes, and the compulsory treatment and isolation of such as
are diseased, is but a very partial treatment of a particular section,
it only tinkers with the problem as a whole, and in the end little
is accomplished because of its fostering effect upon clandestine
prostitution, concealment and quackery. The objection, both
in scientific opinion and popular feeling, to such regulation of prostitution
is steadily developing everywhere. In my judgment the
compulsory notification of venereal diseases would also favour
quackery and concealment, without (in default of further legislation)
furnishing any compensating advantages.
FOOD AND DRUGS.
Under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 156 samples of food
and drugs were taken and analysed. The results are shown in
Table VIII.