View report page

Proposals were, therefore, brought before the Public Health
Committee that we should make a beginning in instructing and
educating the public, and the result will be found in the appropriate
section of this report. Special attention has been paid by
the Propaganda Officer to the schools, and numerous lectures have
been given to children, not only in schools, but at special meetings
in the Town Hall. A circular was recently sent out to all the
schools in the Borough, asking if they wished to be included in
the list of schools who desired to have lectures given by us during
the winter, and with one exception every school desired to be
placed on this list. It is a great pity that education in hygiene
is not compulsory in the schools, and that the efficiency and
extent of this subject should he left so much to the interest that
the individual head teachers have on the subject. The process of
educating the public is a very slow one, and it is much to be
regretted that no help is forthcoming from the London County
Council or the Government, but there are signs that this attitude
will not last long. The main difficulty is that the result of the
propaganda work cannot be immediately ascertained, and cannot
be put into definite figures, for it is only after years of hard work
that any result is seen.
A precedent can be found in the Education Acts, and I have
no doubt that the present reduction in mortality from various
diseases, and the increased enlightenment of the public with
regard to social questions, such as alcohol, are largely due to the
improvement in education of the present day, and I look forward
to the time, not many years hence, when the seed we are sowing
by our present propaganda work will bring forth fruit, some sixty
and some a hundred fold.
SANITARY INSPECTORS.
The division of duties among the Sanitary Inspectors has been
a difficult subject during the last 25 years. When I was appointed
as Medical Officer of Health in 1901, the Public Health Department
as comparatively small, and the Sanitary Inspectors were
supervised by a Chief Inspector. Samples under the Food and
Drugs Acts were taken by all the Inspectors, who combined this
with their everyday work. The Chief Inspector resigned in 1907,