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feel our way very largely. The first suggestion was that some
gentleman with journalistic experience should be appointed to
take charge of this work at a large salary. On second consideration,
the correctness of which has since been proved, it was
decided that any work in this direction should be done by the
existing staff, since a stranger coming in would know very little
about public health work and the requirements of a Municipal
Authority. Dr. D. M. Connan, the Tuberculosis Officer, with the
assistance of Mr. H. W. Bush, decided to organize the work. A
temporary clerk was appointed to assist in details, and it was
decided to commence with lectures in the open-air, lectures in the
schools and clubs, and the printing of pamphlets. On looking
about we found that there were hardly any films on the market
bearing on public health which were of the slightest use to us, so
we decided to make our own films. Having secured suitable
apparatus we did this work very successfully, as is already known
to the Council. Some of the films have been placed in the libraries
of the film producers, and have been bought and borrowed by
other Sanitary Authorities.
Propaganda has, on the whole, been most successful, and it
has been continued, more or less, on these lines, but it is hoped
to extend it very greatly in the near future.
Regarding the history of the Department there are other very
interesting factors, but consideration of space prevents me giving
more than this somewhat scrappy review of the development
during the last twenty-seven years. The work has been a great
pleasure to me, and, the Councils' under which I have worked,
while not seeing eye to eye with me in all my suggestions, have,
on the whole, supported my actions in general matters of policy.
Up to the end of 1918 the progress of the Department was not as
fast as I would have desired, and while some people might be
inclined to blame the constitution of the Council or the inactivity
of the Medical Officer of Health, I do not think condemnation of
either, without considering the whole circumstances, would be
quite just. It was not until the War opened the eyes of the nation
to the value of public health work that many of us realized the
possibilities of the public health service, and this is shewn by the