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372
The above application is useless for the Treatment of the
disease itself; and notwithstanding its use you should be careful
to notice as promptly as possible any itching or smarting or any
slight or superficial sore or discharge, in connection with the private
parts. When these or any other unusual signs appear it is the
greatest folly not to consult a medical man or apply at a Treatment
Centre at the earliest possible moment.
Both these diseases may be cured by early and skilled treatment.
Delay or neglect will increase their severity and may lead to the
results set out above.
N.B.— It is now illegal for persons other than qualified doctors
to treat these diseases.
There is a growing realisation of the strict limitation that
attaches to official efforts in default of the co-operation of the public in
promoting public health; and therefore the importance of the
diffusion of knowledge concerning health by wisely conceived educational
measures is generally recognised. Indeed, an organised
national effort to impress the simple facts of healthy living (at
home and at work) and to create a greater concern for this and
for the early treatment of disease, would generally be admitted to
be a development of paramount value to public health. The public
must be told, made to think, and led to act; for a substantial
public health reform is only possible by the people themselves
becoming the reformers.
The public ignorance is mainly responsible, for public ill-health
has been preached for generations; its truth is so self-evident
that there is no one to dispute it; yet we have done so little to
educate the people on matters concerning their health that less
than half-measures are the most that have been attempted with
either school children or adults. Surely it is the business of ths
State to provide hygienic information in the best way. In default
of this we must continue to do much tinkering with the consequence,
of our neglect. The training of the child is of paramount importance.
The public health problems most under consideration during
recent years have been Housing, Infant Mortality, Clean Milk