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Forty open-air lectures have been delivered during the year. It
was estimated that the average audience would be about 100. The
figures show that this estimate was wrong. A total audience of
13,220 has attended these open-air demonstrations, giving an
average attendance of 330. This is much larger than was
anticipated and may be regarded as fairly accurate, since in every
case except one the audience was counted as carefully as possible.
The smallest audience numbered 100, the largest over 1,000. It
might be advanced as a criticism that an audience of three or four
hundred is too large to be reached effectively by any speaker in
the open air. There is a sufficient answer to this criticism. It
the first place, it is incorrect. At each of our demonstrations at
least one member of the staff has listened at various places on the
outskirts of the crowd and has never failed to hear quite well. In
the second place, an essential part of each meeting has been the
exhibition of lantern slides and films, designed in themselves to
teach a lesson, if necessary, without the aid of a speaker. Lastly
the number of questions asked at our meetings effectually
disproves the criticism. In 1924 and during the early part of this
year one of the vans belonging to the Public Health Department
was used as a cinema van. In July the Council decided to purchase
a special van for the purpose, and this has been of great
help in the work, enabling us to save much time and to give the
spectators a much better view of the pictures. Considerable
technical difficulties had to be overcome in designing the van.
As in the case of the films, most of the firms approached stated
that it was quite impossible to get a satisfactory result and was
not worth the attempt. In spite of these discouraging statements,
this part of the work has been so successful and so entertaining
to those engaged in it that it might be recommended as a form of
recreation for medical officers elsewhere who find life a gloomy
affair. A uniform plan has been followed in all the demonstrations.
In the first place, a slide is exhibited stating that the lecturer is
speaking by authority of the Bermondsey Borough Council. The
official note carries considerable weight and often attracts folk
who would otherwise pass on the other side. A series of
slides is then shown and the lecturer uses these to illustrate his
points, referring when necessary to the film which is to follow
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