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44
Public Education in Health.
The scheme of health education was continued, the Council approving
an estimated expenditure of £200 for this branch of our work. Offers
of lectures were made to various social, political and educational
organisations in the Borough, and three lecturers (2 medical and 1 lay)
were available.
A woman doctor addressed meetings of women and girls on subjects
of peculiar interest to them, but lecturers were also available to speak
on other matters.
The following report was submitted by Mr. T. Wigley, M.A., with
whose assistance the original scheme had been prepared:—
Report by Mr. T. Wigley.
One hundred years ago cholera had established itself in England.
We are told that there were cases at Rotherhithe, in Limehouse, and in a
ship off Greenwich, and the first attempt to organise a local Board of
Health was not very successful, "as they met at a public house and all
got drunk and did nothing.'' But the establishment of Boards of Health
did bring to light a terrible condition of misery, overcrowding and bad
sanitation in the East End. In those days ignorance lay like a dark
shadow over the whole field of disease, and medical science knew nothing
of the causes or the cure of typhoid fever, typhus fever, tuberculosis,
plague, malaria, diphtheria and many other diseases.
Since that time research has made enormous strides forward. Discovery
has followed quickly upon discovery. To-day, not only have the
labours of Pasteur and Lister, Koch and Ross, and those who have built
so well on their foundations, given us control over many of the enemies
of mankind, but a large body of knowledge concerning the maintenance
of health and the avoidance of disease is now available for those who
desire to learn. To take but one instance of the new knowledge, which
should be in the possession of all, the work of Professor Edward Mellanby
and Mrs. Mellanby and others on vitamins, diet and disease, and their
effect on rickets and dental development, has conclusively shown that by
attention to the diet of infants and children rickets and dental caries
may even be entirely prevented.