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and what they have found to fail, so that we need not be always
experimenting, but profit by others' failures or successes, are in a
degree that to my mind is perfectly preposterous doing all in their
power to limit their sphere of usefulness, and to hinder the
spread of sanitary science. I am aware that these are strong
terms to use in speaking of the Local Government Board,
and I am anxious that it should be at once understood that
I am not referring to the medical inspectors connected with
the Board (who, I am bound to say, I have always found to be
ready and willing to assist at all times, by their advice, those who
apply to them) but I am speaking of the general course adopted by
the Board. Let me give an illustration. Every year the Local
Government Board issue a report. These reports I have no
hesitation in saying are, for the most part of great value : the
information they contain has been collected at a great cost, and,
I need not say, that to print volumes of three or four hundred pages
full of plates and photographs, also involves considerable outlay.
This cost is paid for by the public. It might surely be
expected that the information, got together and printed at their cost,
should be in the hands of the public, or, at any rate, in the
hands of those entrusted with the health of the public. The
last report of the Local Government Board contained a paper on
trade nuisances of enormous value, and I shall be pardoned referring
to it inasmuch as it was the work of my predecessor, Dr. Ballard.
Although I am not prepared to accept all it contains, I am bound to
say I regard it as one of the most valuable papers on the subject that
has ever appeared. The subject is one of great importance to health
officers, yet strange to say, not a copy was sent out by the Board to
the various medical officers of health, or to the officers of the
sanitary authorities for their use ; whilst so few copies were printed,
that within three weeks of its issue I myself paid half as much again
(15s.) for a copy (and thought myself fortunate even to get it for
that), as the price at which the report was originally issued.
Moreover, it was by mere accident that I heard of the report at
all; and, what is worse still, this report can never be re-issued.
Surely the work done at the head office, and recorded in the report
of the Board, should be sent far and wide, indeed to every sanitary
authority throughout the kingdom, so that health officers may profit