PREVENTIBLE DISEASE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 89, 9 January 1919, Page 5

PREVENTIBLE DISEASE

-.;. .'■'■'"■■;■-■ ■■"'■'.'*' "'- ■' '• • "PROBLEM OF LONDON'S POOR. ■"•.Sir Arthur Newsholirie, Medical Officer of the Local Government Board, in his annual'. report, issued ~ lately, points out .that .o' vast" mass of avoidable sickness continues." The needs of 'the .future are thus classified: — Research on a greatly increased ecale .'.' into the .causation of disease....' . Extension of communal action for the prevention and treatment of disease and complete training of the medicol profession for this..work;., and Simplification and extension of administrative machinery. "It is obvious," says- the report, "that the creation of ,a Ministry.of Henlth.Tvill not in itself save a single life. A Minisfa'y of Health-can only effect good in so far as it is able to improve the machinery of local and central health government, to amalgamate overlapping or incom- . plot'e.agencies locally or central!}', and ihus to • simplify • the , stages through which proposals for reform need ( to paes." : -■■. ■'•.'■. ■ ' ' In the. interests of the public health medical services should bo readily availnble.for all needing them, and not limited as at present. -So"far as essentials are concerned, these services should beas efficient for all as those obtainable by the rich, and it is "added significantly that this implies not only ,that "ea'.-ii person should: have access to a medical practitioner, but also ... to such ex-pert-and consultative facilities as medical science now renders available" .

France is now the moat cosmopolitan country in tlie world; the men of all nations are to be found in its etreot3, as they are to lie found in no other land. Baces of all colours are at wovk in. its porte; and there are camped upon its soil the most varied congregation of soldiers the,world has ever seen. All . the neutral nations have their colonies of labourers scattered here and there. In. short,,,the conditions are favourable for the'development of an epidemic, quite ■apart from the special possibilities of an 'outbreak iii tho battle area. It is therefore hot a matter for surprse that France hnV.suffered. so much, hut that France has suffered so little. It is stated—it is : not a'fact for-which I can vouchthat France has had fewer cases than any •tther country in Western Europe. If so, a miracle hue been accomplished. It is at least certain that Paris—crowded to. excess, .perhaps, the mast thickly populated city—has hitherto been comparatively ' fortunate—"'Westminster Gazette."' ■'■ '' : ■ . • 'An.American trade circular recently received in' New Zealand, states:—"The .committee appointed to investigate the unsatisfactory . aircraft production during. the first, year of the war has just mode a report. It finds that deplorable conditions, due to 'Incompetence, extravagance, anil neglect, existed at that, time, but only in one instance was flagrant dishonesty indicated, and a court-martial is' recommended in that case'.' Facts and figures recently pub/ lished have shown that aircraft production is at laet on a satisfactory basis, and if the war should go on there is every reason to think that the Tecord of America's achievements in the air will be equal to that of any branch of the service." "I have removed the human lung from tho chest cavity with forceps, tied its bleeding' blood-vessels, cleansed its outor surface, find, while s-till holding it in my hands and manipulating it as you would a handkerchief, I have run thin pieces of gauze up its tracts. Feeling my way carefully along its walls I have removed a bullet or ehell fragment. Then, after suturing tho aperature, I havo placed the respiratory organ back into the cavity of the chest. In twothirds of the cases upon which I have so operated the patient lived." TJus was one of ninny amazing statements 1 mado to 1200 medical officers of the American Army at Camp Greenleaf, by Colonel Pierro Duval, of the French Ec- ■■ serve Medical Corps, earty in November. ! Colonel Duval was on a visit to America '■ with ten of the formnost surgeons of ! England, France, and Italy, to attend i the Inter-Allied War Conference of Suri geons.