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128
MEDICAL RESEARCH.
Medical Research is generally recognised to be of two more or
less distinct kinds :—
(i) Clinical or bedside research, carried out by hospital and
laboratory staff; and
(ii) Epidemiological or social research, the sphere of those who
are concerned with preventive medicine and the public
health.
Before the second world war much valuable research work was
carried out by the members of the medical staff of the Public Health
Department, and the Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of
Health of that time contained the results of many valuable pieces of
research undertaken and completed by the staff.
Dining my tenure of office in Leyton I have been fortunate in
being associated with colleagues who have been not only well
qualified to take part in research work, but keen at all times to
undertake special investigations of current interest without any
consideration as to whether the work either could or should be
done in Council hours or at home. The Annual Reports of the
Medical Officer of Health of Leyton used to be substantial publications
of more than 200 pages, of which a large proportion was
devoted to the results of special investigations carried out by the
staff of the Health Department. Unfortunately the war, and the
shortage of paper, caused strict curtailment of these Annual Reports,
and they have not yet recovered their pre-war position as repositories
of local epidemiological research and special investigation.
One reason may be that the initiation of the National Health
Service, and the upheaval it caused in health departments, has
interfered with the keenness of health officials to add to the already
great amount of paper work.
One of the most salutary effects of the National Health Service
is that it has led to the " discovery " by medical research workers
outside the Local Government field of the Health Visitor and to the
use by them of her unrivalled knowledge of the family in the home
in the setting up of the many and varied enquiries on subjects of
medical and social interest. So many demands have been made in
the last year or so by outside organisations that no research work
initiated locally could have been carried out. However, as the
research work initiated by these outside bodies would ultimately