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will have less local reaction. Such a reagent has apparently been
found for diphtheria in the form of P.T.A.P. and Formol Toxoid,
but if we carry this 'local reaction' argument a little further, then
logically no operative procedure or slight personal injury or physical
exertion are free from risk when poliomyelitis is prevalent. I think
a sense of proportion has to be preserved and although it may be
argued that we erred on the side of caution (if that be a virtue),
we will have struck a bad bargain if a higher proportion of our
whooping-cough cases among the unprotected young population
are left with weakened lungs. There were, in fact, 309 notified
cases of whooping-cough in the Borough last year.
Our Guild of Hygiene, to which brief mention was made in last
year's report, was inaugurated in January and has been operating
for nearly 12 months with a success which has surpassed our modest
hopes.
The "Meals on Wheels" scheme, undertaken by the local Red
Cross, has expanded groatly and now, in addition to the old people
receiving subsidised meals, attention is being given to the needs of
some of our bedridden invalids, including cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
In these latter cases, however, although the transportation
of the meals is free the full price of the meal has to be charged.
Moreover, it is found that sonre of the meals delivered are unsuitable
for invalids and it is to be hoped that a reasonably economic scheme
can be devised whereby the special needs of sick people being
nursed at home can be met.
The work associated with the old people has continued and the
close liaison between St. Alfege's Hospital and this Department has
been maintained. No action under Section 47 of the National
Assistance Act, 1948, has been required in respect of compulsory
removal of aged and infirm persons unable to care adequately for
themselves.
The National Health Service Act has been in operation for
years and the preventive services are now recovering, albeit slowly,
from the plundering and despoliation of what we believed, in sonre
instances wrongly I think, to be our territory. This aggrandisement
which took place at our expense was all the more sorrowful since
the aggression was perpetrated by our own kith and kin. In the
confusion of complete change, it was inevitable that the weak would
go to the wall anel the strongest would consolidate their positions.
It was fondly believed that the meat had been picked from the
Public Health carcase. The hospital administration was usurped,
for which blessing we should be thankful. Part of the Tuber culosis
service was transferred to an alien authority, surely an unhappy
and ill-advised action and the Tuberculosis Officers in that