396 MEDICAL SECTION 



the latter did not as a rule render themselves willing sub- 

 jects for the test. He would also like to ask Dr. Naish how 

 he succeeded in getting these tests performed in every case 

 in the face of the fact that he himself found such great diffi- 

 culty in getting them done. With older children it was 

 difficult, but when.it was a case of children in the first month 

 of life it was an exceedingly difficult matter. 



Dr. SMITH (York) expressed his satisfaction that Dr. 

 Mott had brought this matter forward after the words which 

 had fallen from Dr. Moore in the previous discussion. He 

 could not agree with what Dr. Moore said, that this subject 

 was not one of very great importance in relation to infant 

 mortality. He believed it was of vital importance, and 

 fancied that syphilis had a great deal more to do with infant 

 mortality, especially in pre-natal life, than they had any idea 

 of. The degree of importance, of course, was a matter on 

 which they wanted more information, and it was to be hoped 

 that methods of medical science would result in there being 

 more definite information before long. Dr. Moore seemed 

 to rely upon the amount of mortality which they obtained 

 from the death returns, but every medical officer of health 

 knew that they did not get anything like true returns. That 

 was a fault of their system of certification of death in this 

 country, which was one of the most anomalous things which 

 existed. The medical man was expected to give a medical 

 certificate for which he received no fee whatever. He was 

 not bound in any way to give an exact statement of the 

 cause of death. Then there was another vital thing the 

 certificate passed from the doctor to the Registrar by the 

 hands of the relatives. That was a great mistake, and a 

 thing which must be altered. He was going to suggest a 

 resolution to the Committee that they should urge upon the 

 Government an amendment of the law in regard to the certi- 

 fication of death, and that medical men should be expected 

 to give a complete certificate of the cause of death so far 

 as it was possible for them to state it, and that such certi- 

 ficate should be sent in under sealed cover as a confidential 

 document to the Registrar. If that was done then they 

 would be more likely to get the total number of deaths due 

 to syphilis, and of those due to alcoholism. There was a 

 great deal of need for the education of both men and women 

 as regarded this and allied diseases, and a good deal was 

 being done in an erratic kind of way. For some time past 

 many had been discussing the knotty problem of teaching 

 sex hygiene in schools and elsewhere. The education of 

 men and women to respect the sacredness of sex life and 

 the sacredness and glory of motherhood was much needed. 



