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6
To the Chairman and Members of the
Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My opening remarks will, no doubt, occasion some surprise
to my readers as I intend to try to hammer home the need for
cleanliness. There may even be those who think that such a suggestion
is insulting in this modern age, or, at the very least, such an
old-fashioned idea that it is not worth consideration to-day. I must,
therefore, explain that reference is being made to the urgent necessity
for training everybody to the idea that it is not so much the visible
dirt that has now to be dealt with, but the invisible variety. The
menace of visible filth is so obvious that the ordinary person is forewarned
and therefore forearmed, but when one comes to bacterial
contamination of the hands, a very different problem is set, though
its conquest is really a very easy matter. The answer lies in those
two very simple commodities—soap and water. Perhaps a few
examples of illnesses which are much to the forefront at present,
and could be so easily controlled by a knowledgeable public, would
not be out of place. It is fairly widely known that much trouble and
sickness are caused by food poisoning, but if only everyone would
take that little bit of extra care in handwashing before touching food,
the incidence of the condition could undoubtedly be cut enormously.
The same thing could be said of dysentery which, if it once gets into
a household, nearly always affects everybody living there, due almost
entirely to hand contamination with the bowel borne germs of the
disease. It is also a scientific fact that the virus of anterior poliomyelitis
can be recovered from the excreta of patients, and often
from close contacts in the home, and surely this is a good enough
excuse alone for raising the question of cleanliness and for appealing
to all to ponder this question and honestly ask themselves if they
could not improve their standard of hand washing.
Reference has just been made to the virus of anterior poliomyelitis,
and it would seem the opportune time to refer to the comparatively
new science of virology which may well hold the key to
some of the outstanding problems of medical science. There are
still a number of incidents taking place in our midst which appear
to be of an infectious nature, but for which no obvious cause can be
found, and it may well be that the eventual answer will come from
the ever increasing study of the viruses. Even as this is being
written, preparations are going well ahead for the first batch of
vaccinations against anterior poliomyelitis, and one hopes that satisfactory
results will accrue from this campaign although it is inevitable
that some considerable time will have to elapse before the
results can be assessed properly.