HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 19 July 1924, Page 7

HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE

HOUSING AND FOOD

IMPORTANCE OF SUNLIGHT

CONDEMNATION OF WHITE BREAD AND CEREALS

LONDON, May 23.

Opening the great international conference, at Wembley, arranged by the People’s League of Health, Lord Burnham, says the Otago Daily Times correspondent, extended a welcome to the delegates from the Dominions and from foreign countries who had come to give their assistance to ensure that the conference should be of the highest value to all concerned with the health of tho people. It was impossible to praise too highly the zeal aild devotion Miss Olga Nethorsole bad shown in the good cause. She was the ‘,'fons et origo sanitatis.”(Cheeis). The purpose of the People’s League of Health was its power, and it was intended from the first to be a popular organisation for health propaganda. It was meant to be the intelligence department of hygiene on its objective side. Among other activities the leaguo had carried out the pioneer work of health education in the prisons with beneficial effect; it formed a voluntary Committee to the children’s ‘fagaMa-;- deputations had waited on successry'e’AMiiiisters of Health and Labour on the vital subject of the effect of unemployment and the dole on the health and habits of the nation; and they had waited on the General Council of the Trades Union Congress to discuss with them how best to interest the workers in the value of health and the means of bringing health education to them.

OUT-OF-DATE HOUSES Mr Neville Chamberlain, dealing With the question of housing, said whatever might be their view of the; best way oi dealing with ihe problem they all agreed that the present condition was a blot on our civilisation, and ought to be removed at the earliest possible moment. It was a legacy which had come down to us, and it was not correct to say that l the .housing problem, as it existed to J day, was a result of the capitalist system of society. Ho would rather put it j that the bousing conditions of which wo j complained were due to the iact that the hoi scs inhabited by a largo number [ of our people were built- something like ( 100 years ago. , “We build houses to-day which are expected to last for 80 years. I have) not the slightest hesitation in saying J that long before their life is exhausted they will be completely out of touch with the general idea of wbat a house should be.” Therefore they should seek for some material that, was so cheap that they could afford to scrap the houses when they became, out of date and remodel them in accordance with constant changing ideas. In considering the housing problem they bad also to take into account the redistribution of the population. The two questions were inextricably bound together, while housing and transport together were inextricably bound up with the subject of town planning. There could be no solution of the problem of housing which did not envisage in a large way, with ample foresight, all the developments which are likely to take place in the near future. Mr James Stewart, M.P., Parliamentary Under-Secretary tor Health (Scotland), on the “Cost of Bad Housing,” and, quoting the case of his own city, he said that there were 40,000 single-apart-ment houses and 112,000 two-apartment houses out of a total of 235,000 houses in Glasgow. In other words, 66 per; cent, of the houses Were of one or two apartments orUv and they accommodated 62 per cent, of tho population. A PTO; 1 blem of this character could be Solved only by the force of publio opinion, and if the public did not recognise that the ( solution might involve the expenditure i of millions of pounds, or hundreds of , millions, if need be, then the nation was doomed,

MORE PLAYING FIELDS NEEDED Professor J. Robertson (Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham), hi a paper on “Housing and Recreation Requirements for Town-dwellers,” said there was no better, or healthier, or more profitable recreation for adult men or women than horticulture. He knew of no town that made adequate provision for the recreation of children or adults. It would be extraordinarily difficult to think out a scheme fpr London, but in towns not yet grpw/j too pinch thprp was no reason why flip matter should pot be taken in hand and dealt with. There should be one aero of playing fields, etc. for every four acres of dwellings, or five acre for every 1000 of tho population, and. this should be in addition to One acre of park for the aged and verv young to walk in, and two acres of allotments—eight acres in all. Professor Leonard Hill said the one thing that was at the bottom of ill-health which arose from had housing conditions was lack of exposure to the open air and siushine, apd therefore there shpuld be greater sjfppfjcity p} bpilding.

war wanted was plenty of round houses—and it really did rot matter what tlie houso was. The houses Mr Chamberlain had spoken of as being likely to last for 80 years, were already out of date according to modern hygiene. Suitable areas should be taken near all big towns by the local authority or the State, and people should be allowed to build their own houses there as amateurs. There were many young people with engineering and building facilities inherent in them who would welcome tho chance. It would givb those men an immense interest and pleasure to build their own homes after all building restrictions had been abolished. —(Laughter). All the local authority would have to see to was that the peojile got clean water and a proper system fot the disposal of sewage.

THE “SECRET” OF CANCER Sir \V. Arbuthnot- Lane, presiding over the session which dealt with food and dietary, said it was a terrible thing that we who called ourselves civilised should really be very poor animals. We prided ourselves on being something belter than animals, whereas we were vastly inferior to them physically, while certain mental advantages which we had over them were, not as obvious as tHo physical advantages. Men who had worked amongst, the natives would say that indigestion, appendicitis, ulceration of the stomach, and, last of all, cancel, were absolutely unknown among them. That these diseases thrived amongst us was terribly apparent. Five million in Great. Britain had to die from cancel, and that rate was increasing, moreover, at per cent, a year, in America institutions were springing up to study what was called the secret of cancer, and here we were, following the example, though we might not have so much money available for the purpose. Vet there was no secret of cancer. Here on the one side one had a community which lived on simple foods, and amongst whom cancer and allied diseases did not exist, whereas, on the other hand, one had a community which was dying of cancer and making life a misery. If their experts would put their heads together, and were to produce a small book which would teach the public what foods they could eat with advantage then an enormous amount, of misery would be prevented. It was not that the people were stupid. They did not want to be ill or to die of cancer. The thought of cancer was the bugbear of' their existence, because possibly l heir j

own relatives had died from it, and, they feared that, they would die from; it themselves. It was no good leaving] these matters to the medical people or) to the State. The. State in this matter| was a farce; it took no interest in what one took to eat; it would let one take white bread, which if one used it to feed cats or mice would kill them. What was wanted was a wider knowledge of dietary amongst the people of the country. “I, pin my faith to the food experts.”

TOXIC. ACTION OF CEREALS Pi ■ofessov E. Mellamby contributed a paper on “Some" ways in which food produce.*) and protects, against disease,” in the course, of which he stated that malnutrition, bad teeth, flabby mustfe's, and other physical defects, had been scientifically traced in the main to cereals like' flour, oatmeal, rice, barley, -and maize. The worst of the cereals—and it would appear extraordinary to many people—was Oatmeal, which tended very marledly to stop the growth of the bones and teeth,' and produced defectively formed arid inactive muscles. He would not have ventured to make such an astounding statement if there was not the highest scientific evidence tending to prove that fact. The action of cereals iiad been suspected for sonic years, but it, had only lately been traced to some toxic, pnisqn substance, which was slow, insidiou’s) arid’'"quiet in its action. Its effect could be antagonised by means of other foodstuffs containing another active principle. These foods were milk, eggs, particularly the yolk, green vegetables, animal fats except lard, fish fats, and notably cod liver oil. Butter contained the fat soluble vitamines, but not nearly to the extent that milk did. There was another method of antagonising the toxic action of cereals, and that was through the action of sunlight on the skin, lie advocated plenty of milk, eggs, and vegetables, and in a sunless country like this “one small dose of cod liver oil each day.” If these rules of diet were observed he imagined, from tlie results of experiments, that as a nation we should soon get good teeth, iraod muscular activity, and generally a different type of people from that which we were accustomed to meet with.

SUNLIGHT FOR HEALTH “Doctor Nature has given us the sun as one of the most effective weapons for the defence of the body against, many :11s,” echoed Dr A. Rollier, who is one of the pioneers of the sun-cure in tho treatment of disease. Some remarkable results have been secured at bis Swiss clinic, where weakly and tubercular children have been transformed by the agency of the sun’s rays into menially alert, physically virile youngsters. —Speaking in French, Dr Rollier declared that over-civilisation had tended to take in more and more away from natural lines of-living, and to lead us imperceptibly towards physical degeneration. Guided by instinct, man had since the beginning of time used tho sun as a healer, but for very many generations now he had allowed his skin to be atrophied by the weariug of unhygienic clothing. In depriving the growing child of sun, air, and movement we too often made the school a house of physical degeneration. From infancy the human being was brought up in badly ventilated and sunless looms, and imprisoned in unhygienic clothes, which tended to the slow asphyxiation of the skin and lungs. Later the child was shut up in school during the most important period of growth. Grown Up, he was Very often tne victim of 'sedentary professions, which deprived him of ait, sun, and Tdovement. Great progress had lately been made in many countries with tbo hygienists’ campaign in favour of open spaces where young people could exercise with no clothes on the upper part Of their bodies and legs ,and for the creation of leafy squares and of wide streets planted with trees. Great Britain in all matters connected with physical education had given other nations an example, Its parks and squares were the glory of its great ciiies.

Sir Henry Gauvin, medical superintendent of Lord Mayor Treloar Cripples’ Hospital, said it was a matter for congratulation that- at last serious .scientific attention was being given to those great natural remedies which wero freely available to suffering mankind. The very ease with which air, light, and water could be utilised had made us oblivious to their value and fundamental importance. Human perversity had grossly neglected these wonderful agents. Ho believed, nevertheless, that he could claim that no nation loved air, light, and water more than did the Britjsh,

Professor Leonard Hill pleaded for a wider realisation of the health value of '’the open air, with the fullest enjoyment of what he called sunshine and sky-line, and declared that, much could be done to raise the standard of health in this way, in spite of the present deplorably unhealthy conditions of housing. Dr C. W. Salesby said that when •children took off their clothes to go swimming they were obeying some natural instinct of health. Architects ought t-o know eqough fq piake them prqviqe

Hap roofs for our now houses. He did not know why Mr Selfrldgc should have the only garden roof in London. Sir William Simpson (Professor Hygiene and Public Health at King’s College) urged the formation of an Imperial or National Museum of Health in London, where there should be information on the causes, treatment, and prevention of all the epidemic diseases affecting the Empire. Dr A. Balfour (Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) referred to vermin and their relation to disease, and declared that of all the animals that handed on disease to man the rat was the worst. As a nation we had suffered losses and discomforts because we did not encourage research to get rid of the scourge.