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6
the chief duty of the Medical Officer of Health.
The great attention which has been paid to them
in the past has produced such excellent results that
conditions are now changed, and other matters
pertaining more to the individual unit are assuming
greater importance. Beginning with watchful care
over the mother before the child is born, care is
to be given to afford the infant when born the best
possible chance of living and thriving. When it
has escaped the dangers of infancy it will be
attended to through the whole of its school period
and when later it enters the factory or workshop
care will be taken to secure such conditions of
labour as will prevent phthisis and similar diseases,
and the evils attendant upon overcrowding, upon
the breathing of vitiated air, and from too long
continued strain, etc. Even a certain amount of
worry and anxiety will be removed, as the
individual will have the knowledge that there is
an old age pension to look forward to. If attention
to all these details produces as marked a change in
the next half-century as has resulted from the
sanitary improvements of the past 50 years, old
age will become the chief cause of death, and the
annual sum required to pay the old age pensions
will be an amount which was never contemplated
when these were inaugurated."
Speaking from the experience so far gained in this
district, I have no hesitation in saying that this departure
is on sound and common sense lines, has already done a
great deal of good, and is capable of doing a great deal
more. For the successful carrying out of this work everything
depends upon the tact, discretion, and knowledge of
the Health Visitor. Considering the difficulties attending