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VII.—PROPAGANDA.
Educational work has now formed a recognised section of the
work of this Department for close on ten years. During that
time we have accumulated a considerable amount of experience,
and have also, I think, demonstrated the undoubted value of such
work. I have, therefore, great pleasure in including a report by
Mr. H. W. Bush, who has charge of this section.
Report by H. W. Bush, M.1.H., Propaganda and
Administrative Officer:
During the year 1924 on the instruction of the Public Health
Committee a report was submitted to the Council on the subject
of the "Education of the Public in Hygiene." The origin of the
idea of including as a part of general public health work a section
dealing with this subject was a memorandum addressed to the
Minister of Health by Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer
to the Ministry in which he stated " 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 the prevention of
disease) are dependent for their achievement upon an enlightened
and responsive people."
The report set out in detail the lines on which a Borough
Council could develop health education, some of the suggestions
being on entirely new lines.
It was thought at that time that something more than compulsory
laws and regulations were required to further advance
preventive medicine, and that the next step was to obtain the