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is undeniable, and they should act as a spur to us all to take that
little bit of extra care in our comings and goings which can make
all the difference between happy security and disastrous tragedies.
The seven deaths due to suicide make one think immediately
of the Mental Health Act with its very progressive approach to the
problems of mental sickness. In future the stress will be laid on
community care, and hospital admission which procedure will be
simplified greatly, will only be a phase in the course of treatment.
Taking a long term view of the problem of Mental Illness, and it
certainly is a big problem, one hopes that the Mental Health Act
will make a big contribution to the improvement of those needing
its help. At this stage it might be appropriate to draw attention to
the modern craze for drug taking, especially of the tranquilliser
type. That such a state exists is of course, indicative of an
unhealthy mental outlook and anything that can be done to combat
it is likely to produce an improvement in health. This of course,
brings us to the question of the pressure of modern life, for with
all the modern labour saving devices life should be easier, but in
fact, although we seem to have relieved the pressure on the body,
the same cannot be said for the pressure on the mind, and in the
solution of this problem lies one of the great hopes for the future
of mankind. In this connection, mention should also be made of
the problem of alcoholism which is now gradually becoming
recognised as a disease and not as an objectionable social habit.
There is little doubt that this disease is more rife that is generally
realised, but the number of cases where it is a crippling
disablement is fortunately limited.
The fact that there were 42 deaths from cancer of the lung is
one more warning to the hardened smoker, of the apparent
association between his or her habit and this disease. In addition
to this, the number of deaths from cancer in general reached its
highest ever level at 179. As the population increases it is only
to be expected that a disease of this nature is likely to claim more
victims, but I sometimes wonder whether knowledge of this disease
and its treatment is sufficiently wide-spread among the public. The
fact that most cases treated at an early stage are curable, is too little
known, with the result that people tend to delay treatment from a
sense of fear and hopelessness until the disease is in fact incurable.
The remaining statistics do not reveal any drastic alterations
from the average figures, and do not call for any special
consideration, but although it is not one of the vital statistics as
usually recorded, reference should be made to the really wonderful
summer of 1959, when the hours of sunshine were so high and the
rainfall so low.