View report page

131
The yearly figure since 1932 has fallen to a lower
standard than we regard as adequate.
(5) CHEMICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL
EXAMINATION OF FOOD.
The bacteriological examination of all milk, icecream
and water samples is carried out for this Authority
by the Counties' Public Health Laboratories, of 91,
Queen Victoria Street, London, whilst the examination
of samples of milk for the presence of tubercle is carried
out by Dr. S. R. Gloyne, of the Victoria Park Hospital,
Hackney.
(6) NUTRITION.
An adequate diet to the expectant mother is essential
and Dr. J. Mervyn Thomas, the Deputy Medical
Officer of Health, after consulting other members of
my staff, has drawn up a short, informative and concise
leaflet upon this subject : this is being made available
to expectant mothers. It cannot, however, be said
with too great emphasis that it is too late to correct
errors of nutrition at the time a woman is found to be
pregnant. The most that can be done, in such
circumstance, is to reduce the drain such pregnancy
would otherwise have upon her physical resources.
A woman approaching her confinement is about to
undergo a task equal in physical effort, in the demands
it makes upon her lungs, heart and other organs, to the
effort of a trained woman athlete representing her
country in some international games, and the effort
demanded of the picked man who is chosen to go on
Polar and other hazardous expeditions. We know
what care is taken to see that these men and women are
physically fit before they enter upon the later stages
of their training, or before they actually go beyond the