3'2 OPENING SESSION 



to now 234 districts have adopted it with twelve millions of 

 people, or 33 per cent, of the total population of England 

 and Wales. All forms of tuberculosis are notifiable now. 

 The notification of births, of ophthalmia of the newly 

 born, and oTTubercuIosis, brings into the household, first 



the doctor, then many other agencies; and when there the 

 doctor, the matron, the midwife, and the nurse look round, 

 and as a result they concentrate their obseivation un oilier 

 things and defects from which the family may be suffering. 

 \Ve have the Children Act in operation; we have medical 

 inspection in all our schools; the Mental Deficiency Bill has 

 passed the Commons; under the Insurance Act the maternity 

 grant_is__aYailable. - to- 18,000 mothers per week, or nearly 

 800,000 in the course of the year and I attach less impor- 

 tance to the mere receipt of the money, important though 

 it is, than to the agencies and the influences that the money 

 attracts and conjures to the bedsides of the expectant 

 mothers. Again in housing, as one instance only, we have 

 \ been able under the Act of 1909 in the last two years to 

 c make 66,000 houses fit for human habitation that were not 

 fit for occupation -two years ago. There has been greater 

 sobriety, as I said before, amongst the people; and thanks 

 to the infant consultations, to the 200 voluntary health 

 societies, to the lectures which have been given and litera- 

 ture distributed, far greater care is given now to. child life 

 and the pre-natal condition of the child, On this and the 

 care of the mother every municipality, every health com- 

 mittee, and every voluntary association concentrate their 

 attention. We have had and it is right to say it and I 

 thank you for it we have had better midwifery. The 

 midwives, who are better educated, do their work in a most 

 devoted, painstaking, and kindly way. We have had the 

 appointment of public health visitors, and we have better 

 education, thanks in no small measure to my Right 

 1 I onourable friend the President of the Board of Education. 

 The education of girls between 10 and 14 in the elementary 

 schools and in the secondary schools from 14 up to 18 will 

 fit them far more for their future life than the past education 

 fitted their mothers. I have done my best in a number of 

 'small ways to help your movement. I have tried to secure 

 clean beds by means of the Rag Flock Act. I hope to 

 introduce this week a Pure Food Bill, and although our 

 Milk Bill has not passed, we have been able through an 

 Order of the Board of Agriculture to devote 120,000 a 

 year, half out of the rates and half out of the taxes, for the 

 slaughter of tuberculous cattle. That, I hope, with the 

 passing of our Milk Bill next year, may do more to accele- 

 rate your movement. 



