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which one would not attempt to contradict. Nevertheless, I still
feel that the Public Health Department should be in possession of
the fullest possible information, and that responsible members of
the staff should know exactly what they have to do should a sudden
emergency arise.
On numerous occasions I have mentioned the fact that accidents
in the home and on the roads now represent a very much more serious
problem than do all the known infectious diseases considered
together. Accidents on the road do not, of course, fall within the
province of the Public Health Department, But we are interested
extremely interested in studying and in taking steps to prevent
accidents in the home. It is not so long ago, for instance, that
a special Home Safety Handbook was published, a handbook which we
have found of the greatest use throughout the Borough I have
prepared special articles for insertion in the local press while
we continually display posters and have leaflets available in our
clinics, in the Public Health Department and in the Area Health
Office Members of the staff of the Public Health Department and
Area Health Office have co-operated in giving talks on the value
of home safety especially to mothers with young children and to
old people. In this latter connection, an invitation was extended
to all Old People s Clubs in Wood Green, offering to send a Health
Visitor to one of their meetings, so that the great value of noninflammable
clothing materials could be demonstrated We have also
co-operated with the hospitals serving Wood Green in this field,
The hospitals arenow sending me a list of accidents admitted from
the Borough, due especially to burns and scalds. We are thus in a
position to visit the homes from which cases come - most of them
of course are young children or old persons - and to see whether
there is any way in which we can prevent a repetition of the
accident which occurred. Altogether, Home Safety is a very good
example of the way in which health education can be combined
between the Public Health Department and the Area Health Office,
i.e. be tween the Borough Council and the County Council, Accidents
in the home represent a menace about which we must never be
complacent. It is surely illogical that we should be spending
millions of pounds and using a large number of staff to deal with
the question of vaccination against poliomyelitis, immunisation
against diphtheria and vaccination against smallpox, all three of
which diseases do not account for more than a few hundred deaths
every year throughout the country: yet, although there are many
thousands of deaths annually from accidents in the home not to
mention the countless number of non-fatal injuries, we still seem
to accept this fact as more or less inevitable.
I would conclude by thanking the Health and Cleansing Committee
and the Borough Council for their sustained support and encouragement,
which means a great deal to a medical officer of health and
to apublic health department as a whole. I would also express my
sincere thanks to the staff of the Public Health Department. I
would Bake particular reference once again to the able assistance
and devotion to duty rendered by my Deputy, Dr. J.R. Campbell,
Mr. McCauley,Chief Public Health Inspector, and Mr. P. V. Ingrain,
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