454 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



urgent need for education of the lay public in "the laws of 

 physiological righteousness;" for if the people do not know or 

 understand properly the principles of personal hygiene, they 

 will neglect them or carry them out imperfectly, in fact "the 

 people perish for want of knowledge." Sir George Newman 

 has insisted that health education is an essential part of any 

 national health policy, that instruction should be given in 

 schools, and has faciHtated this by the issue from the Board 

 of Education of "A Handbook of Suggestions on Health 

 Education." In this education medical men have taken 

 the pioneer part, and for its right guidance and success must 

 continue to give this service. 



Infant Welfare. As about 80 per cent of the population 

 are born free from disease, it is obviously most important to 

 protect them against the various dangers in the way of 

 infection, improper feeding, and neglect that may assail 

 them. Antenatal care and instruction of the mothers, infant 

 welfare centers, and infant treatment clinics provided by the 

 state are obviously of great value in this respect. In 1871- 

 1880 out of every thousand infants 149 died during the first 

 year of life, in 1928 this number had fallen to 6§. The infant 

 welfare centers should continue to supervise the health of 

 the young up to the age of school life. 



The school medical service, started in 1907 in England and 

 Wales, is part of the public health service of the country, 

 and employs more than 1800 medical men and women. This 

 step in preventive medicine has been followed by a substan- 

 tial degree of physical and mental improvement. 



Disease of the teeth, pyorrhea alveolaris and dental caries, 

 are an extremely common cause of ill health, rheumatism 

 and fibrositis, neuritis, disease in the abdomen and other 

 parts. The frequency of dental disease may have increased 

 with the cooking of civilized hfe, but, be this as it may, the 

 great importance of oral sepsis, including tonsilhtis, in 

 causing widespread bodily disease, especially rheumatic fever 

 and heart disease, has only recently been fully recognized. 

 The institution of dental clinics for the inspection of school 

 children, as part of the systematic school medical service in 

 Great Britain, is a most valuable element in preventive 

 medicine. Logically a similar periodical medical exainina- 



