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PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
ELMPIELD HOUSE,
HIGH STREET,
TiEDDINGTON.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Twickenham.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for 1958 on the
health and sanitary conditions of the Borough together with the
supplement containing the statistical tables for 1957 as required
by the Ministry of Health.
I trust you will not be disappointed that my report this year
is a little shorter than usual; indeed you may think that is a
great advantage. Much of my time this year has been occupied in
trying to get started on the correct lines the clinic for the old
people in Teddington. In the pages which follow I have tried to
give a short account of what has been happening. Some of you are
already aware of the details in this report and I hope you won't
mind it being said again I am sure the clinic is one of the best
things the health service has provided for our town in many a long
year; in fact since the maternity and child welfare and school
health services were established years ago," That it will thrive I
have no doubt, and I dare say I could predict that in five or ten
years time these clinics will have been established all over the
country This first clinic does not pretend to set the pattern or
determine the experience or qualifications of the doctor, or the
number of assistant staff or anything like that. It is an experiment
to try out all sorts of ideas as they occur, as for example
why the functions of the body deteriorate as we grow older, how to
prevent cataract or coronary thrombosis, But I do wish I could
have the equipment to do it with it is so difficult working with
home made apparatus constructed out of tins and wire,
Dr. Bloom of Teddington has contributed an article this year
about catarrh This is the first time I have had such a contribution
in the 20 years I have been here His thesis is that you can
reduce inflammation in the nose and throat by washing away the
inflammatory exudates It is certainly true in community epidemiology
that if you can reduce the number of people carrying germs to
a small proportion you can wipe out an epidemic For example if
say 70% of the population carry germs in their throats an epidemic
will spread, but if you can reduce it to say 30% the epidemic dies
out of its own accord Raising the number of immune people has the
same effect, as in diphtheria immunisation As individuals each of
us can tolerate and deal with a few infectious organisms, but we
succumb to heavy infections Dr Bloom advocates also clearing the
nose. In doing so we open up the tiny canals and openings which
drain the sinuses in the bones of the face and the internal canal
into the ear. Opening up these orifices allows noxious material to
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