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PROPAGANDA.
The following is a copy of a Report made to the Public Health
Committee on the “ Education of the Public in Hygiene ” : —
In a memorandum recently addressed to the Minister of Health
by Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of
Health, he states “ An essential part of any health policy is the
instruction in the principles and practice of Hygiene of the great
mass of the people. In this as in any other spheres of human affairs
ignorance is the chief curse. We are only now, as knowledge grows,
becoming aware of the immeasurable part played by ignorance in
the realm of disease. It is hardly too much to say that in proportion
as knowledge spreads in a population, disease and incapacity
decline .... As in the individual so in the community, knowledge
is the sheet anchor of preventive medicine. The great reforms
(in prevention of disease) .... are dependent for their achievement
upon an enlightened and responsive people.”
In these weighty words Sir George Newman gives the most
essential requisite in the successful carrying out of any broad scheme
dealing with the prevention of disease, viz., the education of the
masses.
Up till recent years preventive medicine was solely concerned
with the making of laws and regulations to prevent the spread of
the common infectious diseases, but experience has proved amply
that these are of little avail unless there is intelligent co-operation
on the part of the individuals in the community to which these
enactments apply. Laws dealing with infectious disease are frequently
evaded, but where an individual knows the reason for
compliance, and that it is for his benefit, you will never find there
is any desire to do so. One example will suffice to illustrate my
meaning. There are plenty of regulations against spitting, but of
what avail are these if the consumptive spits about carelessly in
private, and in public when he is not likely to be found out. If
he, on the other hand, fully understands the danger of this filthy
habit he will be careful, regulations or no regulations.