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possibly a model health officer's report is that of the Registrar
General, who presents his figures almost without comment. But a
broader and more liberal view of this annual duty seems desirable in
the case of a district medical officer of health. If this Report is to
be of practical use to those to whom it is presented and not to find
a resting place in some obscure corner in the archives of his Board,
some comment and explanation is justifiable and imperative, especially
as his words may through various channels reach the public, who
admittedly have neither the time nor the taste for gathering the lessons
conveyed by mere statistics. In these days of high pressure and
competition we must read as we run or else not at all.
In endeavouring, however, to make such a report interesting and
free from the criticism of sameness, a medical officer of health experiences
some difficulty, particularly if the period under review has
been marked by the absence of exceptional circumstances or features.
Health work is pre-eminently detail work, and it is only generalities
and principles which are popular and attractive. Genius alone can
put breath in the dry bones of routine and statistics, teaching halfforgotten
truths and recalling altogether neglected facts. Yet what
can be more salutary than that the ratepayer should be impressed by
the work that is done for the community with his money, and that
some of the public ignorance regarding the scope and object of your
Board's operations from day to day should be removed. If therefore
it is thought that in this Report I am re-travelling oft-trodden ground or
treating of time-worn topics, the character of my work is responsible
(though staleness and familiarity ought not to be criterions of value or
public utility), while the 21 Annual Reports which have preceded this
render the breaking of virgin soil almost impossible.
CENERAL
SUMMARY AND
STATEMENT.
Bow is not an unhealthy area; on the contrary there are many
evidences to show that it is naturally salubrious. Its artificial conditions
and circumstances, however, discount the physical
advantages, but these in their turn are combatted by a
sanitary administration which the local authority may with