HEALTH EDUCATION.

Evening Star, Issue 22954, 11 May 1938, Page 6

HEALTH EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I wish to make a plea for facilities for the public to obtain a better education in matters of health. The present system—continued in the various health schemes put_ forward—treats illness, butidoes not give instruction on the conditions underlying health and disease. The surgery of a busy doctor and the wards of a hospital are not places for anything but a brief resume of a patient’s trouble. There are numerous health societies, but, however well-meaning, their aim is usually the propagation of one particular theory, and their leaders speak rather with enthusiasm than knowledge. \ ■, What is needed is a health information service where people who are interested in any of the innumerable health problems can secure for a reasonable fee competent scientific' instruction. Lectures on problems of general interest could be arranged for schools and the public. Instruction must be the sole aim, not treatment, which is left for the physician, surgeon, or hospital. That such instruction is needed is shown by the great ignorance of most people on even the most fundamental facta of the workings of the human body. Another result is the increasing growth of quackery, the results of which, if unfplded, would make a tragic tale. My plea is therefor® for tne removal of the mists of ignorance which have for too long surrounded the vital problems of health and disease. No State health schemes —however expensive—will do it. Let us encourage every member of the community to take a pride in his or her physical wellbeing, and in their knowledge of that house not made with hands in which they have their home. Should mischance, disease, or accident overtake them, they will be the able to cooperate with intelligence in the medical treatment given them.—l am, etc., Knowledge is Strength. . May 11. .