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57
in placing in your hands this my eighth Report, as
I am convinced it affords abundant evidence of the
importance of the office I have the honour to hold
in your Parish. In the census of 1861 I am
returned as one of forty-seven health officers who
exist in the United Kingdom. The Registrar
observes, "This is a new Medical Office. Hitherto
"the medical skill of the country has been usefully
"employed in the treatment of the rich, but the
"means of life-preservation was neglected, and was
"rarely applied practically because it formed no
"part of the business of the medical profession.
"The Health Officers, few in number, have already
"done incalculable good, and the local government
"of no community is complete without them. The
"conditions on which health depends are so various
"as to require for their regulation the highest
"order of medical education and talent." To have
been one of the earliest to work this noble office
will be a perpetual source of satisfaction to myself
and of gratitude to you, whose generous confidence
have been so abundantly testified in the readiness
with which you have listened to and carried out my
suggestions.
I am,
Rev. Sir, My Lords, and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
EDWIN LANKESTER.
Vestry Hall, Piccadilly,
23rd June, 1864.