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64
SUGGESTED HEALTH SOCIETY FOR
LAMBETH.
(Special Report presented to the Council on January 7th,
1907.)
For some time I have been considering the advisability of
suggesting the establishment, for the Borough of Lambeth,
of a Health Society. I have always felt that, throughout a
large district like the Borough of Lambeth, there is a large
amount of energy at present wasted by reason of want of
proper organisation and administration amongst the hosts
of excellent workers who are at present provided by Charitable
and Philanthropic Institutions, University Settlements,
Churches and Chapels, and other Bodies, etc. Union is
strength, and an amalgamation of all forces, working in
connection with and under the Health Department of the
Borough Council, might have a far-reaching effect for good.
Thus, all workers to-day recognise the importance of training
mothers and others in Hygiene and Domestic Economy,
thereby carrying out a large amount of routine health work
other than the purely official work of a Health Department.
Health conditions would be improved, more especially in the
way of preventing (1) Infantile Mortality and Diarrhoea;
(2) the spread of Consumption, Measles, and Whooping
Cough; etc. It cannot be too much emphasised that, however
advanced a Sanitary Authority may be (and Lambeth is
in the front rank), there still remains the necessity for teaching
the people how to make use of the municipal sanitary
advantages provided for them. In this way, the work of a
Sanitary Authority may be advantageously supplemented by
personal dealings with the poor (and others) in their homes,
and by teaching them how to keep their houses and children
clean and healthy. This branch of health work is, like the
training of mothers (and others) in Domestic Hygiene, outside
the purely official work of a Health Department.
My views have already been approved by many workers,
to whom I have had the opportunity of explaining them, and
I am sure that official enquiries amongst the Local Clergy
and others, who already have charge of organisations
carried out on similar lines, would prove that a Health
Society is much needed for the Borough of Lambeth.