At the meeting of the Rushden Urban Council on Wednesday the annual report of the Medical Officer (Dr. Baker) was received.

  Mr. Claridge said he was glad Dr. Baker had gone very thoroughly into the subjects under his notice.  Perhaps the doctor was a little ironical on the question of the tuberculosis centre at Rushden House.  He (Mr. Claridge) did not think that Rushden was a suitable place for a sanatorium, and was fully in agreement with the doctor on that point.  Mr. Claridge hoped that the people of the town would act on the advice of the Medical Officer in regard to the manner in which they should spend their extra leisure.  If those hours of extra spare time were used properly it would be to the immense advantage of the townspeople, especially when there was the further benefit of the Daylight Saving Act.  He noticed that there were fewer cases of tuberculosis, but the general death-rate was a little higher.  The infantile death-rate was considerably higher than it was last year, but apparently that was liable to great variation.  Mr. Claridge strongly urged the inhabitants of Rushden to act on the advice of the Medical Officer.

  Mr. Spencer said he would like information on the infantile death-rate.  Was not the increase due to the fact that there were more married women at work now than was formerly the case.

  Mr. Claridge:  Do you mean there are more married women working in factories?

  Mr. Spencer:  I would not say entirely in factories, but the question needs inquiring into.

  Mr. Bazeley suggested a town’s meeting to thoroughly discuss the report.

  Mr. Knight said the doctor had given the Council what they asked for – an annual report; therefore any debating would not alter his report.  If the people would act on it, much more good would be done than could result from a discussion on the report.

  Mr. Hornsby agreed with the doctor that hospitals should be a charge upon the State.  It was too much to expect such institutions to be properly maintained by charitable means.  A hospital as a war memorial in Rushden had been discussed.  Something would certainly have to be done.  Either they would have to go forward with their own scheme, or they ought to give liberal support to the county hospital.  There were 126 on the waiting list at Northampton, and it was serious to think what the effect on the health of the community would be with so many patients waiting for proper treatment.

  From the report, which was adopted, we take the following extracts:

  Herewith I have the honour to submit my report and comments for 1919 concerning the Health, Sanitary well-being, etc., of the community under your administration.

  I consider it my first duty to congratulate you and the district generally upon the just recognition of it by the Central County Authority as a County Health resort.  I refer to the proposed location within its area of a Colony with the object in view of the arrest and cure of Tuberculosis, this being the object, and the welfare of the community generally the paramount consideration.  The Central Authority must consider the advantage of the general salubriousness of the district to outweigh the disadvantages pertaining to the actual site and the inappropriateness of the buildings now upon it in selecting it from among all the other eligible sites in the county as a spot suitable for another tuberculosis experiment.

  Among other claims as an argument for its selection was the statement that the incidence of Tuberculosis was greater in Rushden than in any other district in the county.  This, evidently, on the Homeopathic principle of treating a Hydrophobic patient with “a hair of the dog that bit him.”

  As the population of Rushden is largely an immigrant and not an indigenous one, it would appear that the intelligence of the individual unit dwelling in other towns with a lesser record for health forestalled the collective wisdom emanating from the County Hall in recognising the district as a desirable one to dwell in, gathering their information doubtless from previously published reports both local and central, showing that for general health, low annual death-rate, good sanitation, good water supply, and general prosperity the town compares very favourably with other communities within the County Boundary.

  Flattered as we should be by the selection, one may be permitted to hope that this scheme may be more successful in fruition, and productive of the result aimed at, in view of the large expenditure of public money, than have been some of those schemes with a similar object which have been already instituted.  For it is not comforting to observe that in spite of these the incidence of Tuberculosis would appear to have rather increased than lessened as regards the number of cases notified.  With regard to this it must be borne in mind that the events of the last five years have militated against the success of the scheme in vogue.

  Fears have been engendered in the minds of some of the inhabitants that it is unwise to place an admittedly sickly and contagious colony in such close relation to one of at least average health, especially in view of the fact that the contagiousness of Tuberculosis is so insisted upon and seeing that much more isolated areas are available.  I don’t think it desirable myself except on the plea of necessity or urgency, and so far as I know neither of these factors arise.  At the same time it is unlikely that the incidence of Tuberculosis will be affected by the location of the colony at the proposed spot, as unfortunately such schemes only deal with the effect.  The great fundamental causes remain almost untouched.  These will be referred to in a later paragraph when reviewing the statistics relating to Tuberculosis.

  Another important matter concerning the Health and well-being of the district has been under public discussion during the year, namely, the provision of suitable Hospital accommodation for the town.

  I venture to think that there is not likely to be any diversity of opinion as to the necessity and desirability of providing this, but whether it will take the form of a permanent War Memorial is open to doubt and criticism.  My7 personal leanings are not that way but toward something more distinctive and that will remain distinctive for all time.  More especially do I think that a Hospital as such would soon lose its characteristic distinctiveness, in that I am of opinion that the time is not far distant when under the newly instituted Ministry of Health the whole Hospital service of the country will be properly organised and coordinated, when every town and district will have its quota of beds allotted to it, with its necessary transport.  A central or base hospital for a given district, with its dependent or feeding institutions in the form of Cottage or Clearing Hospitals, but here it is not necessary to elaborate any special scheme.

  The Voluntary Hospitals have done a magnificent service to the country and a strong case can be made out for their survival, but I think the time near at hand when Hospital accommodation should, at any rate in part, be a charge upon the public funds, and a link in the chain of Public Health Administration, and not depend upon the enthusiasm of a few earnest workers appealing to the emotions of a more or less charitable public for support.  There appears to be a healthy spirit arising in the minds of a large portion of the public to resent institutions of an eleemosynary character in favour of those instituted as a public right.  A hospital should be available to any case where hospital treatment is necessary, and not depend upon the favour of a letter being obtainable or not, and again a case should not be admitted solely on presentation of a letter if the case is unsuitable.  In that case the Central Hospital for major cases will not have its beds encumbered by minor cases, keeping out more urgent cases.

  Whether as a War Memorial or not there is no objection, on the contrary, to such scheme being matured provided sufficient funds are subscribed to erect a suitable building, equip it, staff it suitably and efficiently, with a surplus for partial endowment, so that it is not entirely depending on yearly subscriptions – but if such an amount is not forthcoming as to provide these things, then in my opinion what funds there are had better go to an institution where these things already are.

  A greater need in my opinion than a General Hospital is the provision of a Maternity Centre with lying-in accommodation for all those cases, the great number, that cannot and do not receive the attention and nursing in their homes which is desirable.  A small nursing staff skilled in the special requirements, could then do the work that a larger number of unskilled persons now do.  In many cases no nurses of any kind are available, and mother and child have to do the best they can, depending upon the kind services of friends or neighbours.  Such an institution would also conserve the time of doctors instead of dissipating it.  The Maternity and Child Welfare schemes could also be worked from it, and by its staff.

  The Housing accommodation is still in its acute stage in this as in many other districts, many more houses being required than there seems any prospect of erecting in the near future.  Those that have been started still drag their slow course along, with many halts from one cause and another. It is a mathematical certainty that in a much shorter working wseek, if work is maintained only the same pace, a rapid rate of erection cannot take place, so that as a community we cannot have it both ways, unless we expedite the pace of work.

  During the year in the staple trade of the district, the hours of work have been curtailed and the hours of leisure increased, so that workers in that trade have now ample time for rest and recreation, and improvement of mind and health of body if they so like to use it – leisure is of value or otherwise according to the use made of it.  The working hours are not now too long to make any excessive demand upon the physical powers, and the hours of leisure are sufficient to recoup any demands made in the hours of work, if they are wisely spent.  In all too many cases I am afraid they are not.  I am inclined to think that apart from accidents and occupational diseases most of the illness and disability is contracted in the leisure hours, and “that tired feeling” in the morning is not so much the result of the work of the day before as it is of the doings of the hours after work.  This may be contrary to the popular preachings of those courting the political suffrages of the workers, but it is the considered result of 30 years’ medical experience in an industrial district, and without the necessity of clothing ones’ opinions in fanciful inexactitudes.  Man acquires wisdom very slowly, especially in the best way to conduct his life to his own well being.  I am speaking now of his health, not of his material well-being translated in terms of income or wages.  The one is not so dependent upon the other as it is usual to teach.  Many of the houses I am in daily contact with which are the cleanest, best managed, where children are best cared for, best trained, and who reap the best result of education, are those where the weekly income is the smallest, and in these there is most content.  On the other hand, in many cases where the combined earnings of the inmates are largest, the converse is the case.  It would appear to me that one factor needed more than anything else in the improvement of the social conditions is an education to lay out earnings to the best advantage.  In some energy were spent in this direction there would be more content and happiness followed by the inevitable gain in health.

  I had occasion in my last report to infer that in my opinion mankind stood more in danger from immature minds unconscious of their limitations, than from frailty of body.  Nothing that has happened since, or happening now, gives me cause to vary my opinion.  The sanguine and inexperienced promised us a new world.  Some of us had our doubts, knowing that it had to be constructed out of the old Adam – human nature – this changes very slowly if at all, and is of the same nature in us all, of whatever political creed or social status.

  It is all too common to mistake pleasure for happiness.  The latter is only too often lost in chasing the former.  It would appear to be the trend of effort in some who would inform society to preach a doctrine of never being contented with one’s state.  I have had ample means of comparing the effect upon health between the man who is reasonably content and the one who is continuously pining for “the fleshposts of Egypt,” or sighing for his neighbour’s vineyard, and in the meaning of life, in the value of life, and in the enjoyment of life the former has it every time and all the time; if he does not get as large a bank balance, he gets that which no bank balance can procure.

  The two hours of extra daylight gained by the enactment of the Daylight Saving Act has been in my opinion a distinct gain to the community on the whole.  In some directions there may be minor disadvantages, but the balance has been distinctly one of gain.