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17
has resulted in good work being done, and gives special point to
the following brief extracts from the latest report of the Chief
Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health.
"However much the scope of preventive medicine may
be extended it should never be forgotten that this branch of
medicine depends primarily on a sound foundation of environmental
hygiene: and for this reason the medical officer of
health must possess a firm grasp of all that relates to healthy
environmental conditions. It must not be supposed that these
can now be wholly left to other experts in the field of sanitary
science; on the contrary the need for close co-operation between
the health officer, his engineering colleagues and his
indispensable co-workers the sanitary or public health officers,
is as important as ever. There should be no working in
isolation;
And in a later paragraph dealing with environmental hygiene
the following occurs—
"Since environmental hygiene has been defined as the
control of those factors in a man's physical environment
which exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his
physical, mental or social well-being the interest and responsibility
of the medical officer of health in this field continue to
be of fundamental importance Within the health department
itself much depends in this connection on the
invaluable services of the sanitary inspectors, or public health
inspectors as they may now be more properly designated."
Furthermore I have had the advantage in having a loyal and
co-operative staff who, besides carrying out their normal and often
dull and unspectacular routine duties, have always been ready to
meet those urgent situations which inevitably arise in a department
of this character. Of my voluntary work done on behalf of the
general public I will say nothing except that it has been not inconsiderable
and the expressions of thanks I have received from
time to time both from individuals and the Council have been a
source of great gratification to me.
Finally it would have been impossible for me to have remained
here happy in my work for such a long time, without the
help, encouragement and backing of the Council and the cooperation
of my brother officers.
The year under review has been uneventful. No departmental
changes have occurred and this allowed the work to proceed
smoothly. Food matters again occurred a considerable proportion
of the inspectors' time.
I mentioned in my last report, the main causes of the increase
in food poisoning notifications during the past few years and these