Abstract
THE sixteenth annual report of the Ministry of Health, 1934-35, has recently been issued, and deals under six sections with the whole subject of the public health and its administration in England and Wales (Cmd. 4978. H.M. Stationery Office, 1935. 55. 6d. net.). Sir Kingsley Wood, the Minister of Health, in his introduction, contrasts mortality rates for the years 1910 and 1933. Thus, the death rates per 1,000 living for these two years were, respectively, 13.2 and 9.3; the infant mortality rates were 105 and 64, the death rates per million from pulmonary tuberculosis were 988 and 639, and for typhoid fever, 53 and 5. Maternal mortality, however, in spite of the development of maternity services in recent years, has not yet begun to fall. Statistics of vaccination show a slight but steady decline, from 42-6 per cent of total births in 1928 to 37-0 in 1933. Samples of food and drugs analysed during 1934 numbered 140,583, a small increase over the previous year, of which 7,451 or 5.3 per cent were reported against. It is mentioned that in some districts there are signs of revival and expansion of canal traffic, and there is evidence that motor traction of canal boats is continuing to develop, for many motor-propelled boats are on order, such boats being notable for improvements in design as regards ventilation and sanitation compared with the old type of boat.
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Public Health in England and Wales, 1934–35. Nature 136, 639 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136639a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136639a0