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4
A considerable reduction in the number of animals
slaughtered for human consumption during the past two
years will be noted. This is attributed to the popularity
of frozen meat and to the fact that certain butchers
kill in slaughterhouses outside the district. Frozen
meat is cheaper for the public and entails less trouble
and waste for the butcher than home-killed meat.
Infectious diseases show an all-round reduction
from 1930, with the exception of Pneumonia. All cases
of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria were removed to
hospital. Many Local Authorities have adopted the
practice, where conditions permit, of home isolation for
cases of Scarlet Fever. Exhaustive experience in ail
parts of the country has shown that this does not lead
to secondary cases in infected houses, and leaves beds
free for patients more in need of skilled nursing treatment.
From the financial viewpoint the practice has
everything to commend it.
The details of the work of the Venereal Diseases
Clinic at Gravesend, which serves the district of the
old Orsett Hundred in addition to an area in Kent, give
only a faint idea of the gravity of one of the biggest social
problems of to-day. Blindness, imbecility, mental and
physical disease, crime, and deformity can be traced in a
large proportion of instances to venereal disease, either
acquired or hereditary, whilst the burden upon the
public purse for measures to cope with them is crippling.
I wish to express my indebtedness to the Council
for their support during the year. To my colleagues in
other departments, to all those bodies who have supplied
details for this Report, and to the local medical practitioners
I take this opportunity of saying how much
their co-operation has been appreciated.
I am,
Your obedient servant,
W. T. G. BOUL, m.d., ch.b. d.p.h.,
medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Dept.,
Quarry Hill,
Grays, Essex.