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sooner or later be proved to be preventible disease. The loss to 
the country is incalculable, the grief may add another victim to 
the asylum. Sometimes if it does not kill its victim he may be 
left a wreck. Typhoid sometimes causes insanity, scarlet fever 
deafness and even blindness. 
All these diseases ought to be attacked in their origin. With 
regard to typhoid, certain conditions of soils, if they do not 
actually produce the disease intensify its virulence. 
So much is known that an expert could almost state where in 
a locality certain diseases are likely to break out, and could give 
a forecast of its course if he were allowed to examine the soil, 
drainage, houses, and take the conditions of the people, place 
his facts side by side, and come at his results. 
This ought to be done in every nook and corner. A few years 
ago an Act was passed for the notification of so-called infectious 
diseases, which compelled every householder to inform the local 
authority when he had an infectious case in hishouse. This has 
been done, but beyond opening the eyes of the people to the 
actual numbers, little good has resulted. A medical officer 
who sees these reports can form an idea what diseases are 
prevalent in certain localities, and make it his duty to inquire 
why, and when he finds out the reason, it is the duty of the local 
authority to apply the remedy at any cost. No cost can be too 
great. 
The paper concluded with the following suggestions :— 
That all disorders, or illnesses, or deaths, lesser or greater, 
are national concerns, and they should ali be unremittingly 
traced to their origin; that every case should receive the 
nation’s attention, and in order to do so the creation of a 
Ministry of Health with a staff all over the country was necessary. 
Every illness should receive the attention of one or more of the 
Minister’s subordinates, who should be required to write a full 
account of the case, trace it to its origin without fear or favour, 
and this report should be analysed by one in charge of the 
district, and so on up to the head, and conclusions could thereby 
be arrived at which must eventually, if these behests were carried 
out, chase disease away. 
