MENTAL DEFICIENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20707, 3 May 1929, Page 9

MENTAL DEFICIENTS

BIG ARMY IN BRITAIN. A CAUSE FOR ANXIETY. ’ (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, May I. MriNeville Chamberlain (Minister of Health), in presenting the Health Estimates. jp the House of Commons, .said there were now 300,000 mental deficients in the country, about double the' Royal Commission’s estimate in 1908. This, was a cause for anxiety and apprehension. Out of that number only onetentl) was definitely deficient, therefore sterilisation would not be a satisfactory solution. The ideal method of treatment was: in settlements of 1000, where deficients could be trained till they were fit .to be released; but this was very costly. Last year’s infantile and tuberculosis death rates were the lowest recorded. ' Mr Chamberlain stated that the growing figures of mild smallpox in the past few years showed that as long as a large part of the population was- not vaccinated there was a risk of a panic if a virulent type broke out. Cancer cases were increasing, but radium treatment was proving singularly successful now, and quite superseded the older methods of;;surgery. The need of radium was v*y pressing and urgent,—-Australian Pijcss Association. * ■ ____________