Abstract
STUDENTS of public health have long been aware of the fact that the application to the general community of the methods of preventing and curing disease is seriously incommensurate with our knowledge of these methods. Tuberculosis we believe to be an almost, if not entirely, preventable disease, yet it is still the largest single cause of death; rickets, probably an exclusively environmental disorder, produces defects and deformities persisting through life in a large proportion of the poorer classes; infant mortality is probably exactly double what it would be if we could place every infant in a healthy environment; Sir George Newman has told us that a million school children suffer from physical or mental deficiencies, which render attempts to educate them almost useless, yet here also the physique and healthiness of the average public-school boy prove once more, that the elementary-school child is the victim of pernicious surrounding's.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A Ministry of Health . Nature 101, 121–122 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/101121a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/101121a0