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6
To the Chairman and Members of the
Orpington Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The main body of this report, must in the nature of things,
consist primarily of hard facts, which of themselves may be of
interest to the technically minded, but which undoubtedly provide
heavy and uninspired reading matter for the great majority of those
likely to study them. It therefore seems desirable that the
introductory letter should highlight a few of the outstanding
happenings of the year and present them in a form which one
hopes, will not be too humdrum and uninteresting.
One of the human race's greatest attributes is its ability to
forget the less pleasant features of life and it is an undoubted fact
that if on any one day a particular individual were asked what his
main worry of the previous day was, the chances are heavily in
favour of him being quite unable to give the answer, at least
without a great deal of thought. However, despite this remark,
I imagine that everybody will remember the influenza outbreak
which occurred during the later part of last year, and caused so
much anxiety at the time, although looked at in retrospect most
people would agree " it might have been much worse." Such
widespread publicity is given these days to any outbreak of illness
that one wonders whether the psychological reaction on those
unaffected can be anything but damaging to morale. When proved
preventive measures are available to all, it is of course desirable
to use all possible methods of disseminating the appropriate
information, but when as in the case of influenza, measures for its
control are still so much in their infancy, I personally have grave
doubts of the wisdom of high powered publicity. Of course the
real crux of the matter lies in the fact that bad health is
news, while good health is not; this in itself is just as it should be
and our aim for the future must be to do away with all news of
bad health.
The influenza epidemic as such started in September, reached
its peak in the week ending 15th October, and thereafter declined
more or less rapidly although the sickness rate remained well above
average for the rest of the year. This outbreak which originated
in the East, spread across the world with some speed and was
caused by a mutation of a previously known virus. Fortunately
it can be said as a generalisation, that the resultant disease was
mild in character and tended to affect predominantly the younger
members of the community, who of course were better equipped to
withstand its assault, but the problems of its control remained
more or less unsolved. Even should a vaccine with one hundred