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7
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
ANNUAL REPORT of the MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
Health Department,
Town Hall,
Toltenham.
March, 1920.
To the Chairman and other Members of the Toltenham Urban
District Council.
Gentlemen.
During the past four or five years, while the great war occupied
the minds and energies of the population, when the staffs of Health
and other Authorities were depleted, the Local Government Board were
satisfied with a cursory review of health matters in Annual Reports.
It was, however, anticipated that with a return to peaceful conditions
there would also be a return to the old and more comprehensive system
of recording vital statistics and generally of detailing the circumstances
relating to health in every community.
The Ministry of Health—the successors in office of the Local
Government Board—have prescribed the scope of the Annual Report
for 1919, and it will be my endeavour to comply with their requirements
in-so-far as they relate to Tottenham and in the arrangement of subjects
suggested by the Ministry.
The Report of the School Medical Services, although published
in the same volume with the Report upon the General Health Service
of the district, is given in a different section. This has been necessitated
by the fact that the unity of function that was anticipated by the
establishment of the Ministry of Health has not materialised, and while
the Ministry of Health require to be informed of the conditions affecting