PUBLIC HEALTH 



increased to about 44 years at the 

 present time. In default of a 

 general sickness rate for the 

 community, the best statistical 

 evidence of the public health is the 

 death-rate, and the mean annual 

 death-rate of England and Wales 

 for the following 10-yearly periods 

 has shown the following progres- 

 sive decrease : 1861-70, 22'5 per 

 1,000 ; 1871-80, 21-4 ; 1881-90, 

 19-1 ; 1891-1900, 18-2 ; 1901-10, 

 15*4. The improvements in sani- 

 tary circumstances are closely re- 

 flected in the death-rates from 

 phthisis, enteric fever, and infantile 

 diarrhoea. The death-rates from 

 phthisis and diarrhoea are now 

 less than half of what they were 

 about 1870, and that for enteric 

 fever is only about one-eighth. 



The rates of infant mortality 

 furnish no evidence of any con- 

 tinuous reduction before 1905, but 

 the mean rate since the commence- 

 ment of that year and up to the 

 last pre-war year (1913), was 116 ; 

 while that for a corresponding 

 number of years immediately pre- 

 ceding 1905 was about 146. 



Special mention may be made of 

 some further achievements of 

 public health work during recent 

 years. In industrial hygiene the 

 measures taken to guard against 

 the inhalation of trade dusts or 

 vapours, which if long continued 

 tends to produce diseases of the 

 lungs and predispose to fibroid 

 phthisis, have met with great 

 success. Industrial poisonings 

 have shrunk even more ; lead 

 poisoning has been reduced some 

 50 p.c., phosphorus poisoning may 

 be said to have almost ceased, and 

 mercurial, arsenical, and copper 

 poisonings are a small fraction only 

 of what they once were. Of 

 epizootic diseases, rabies, glanders, 

 and anthrax, notably, are claim- 

 ing far fewer victims than formerly; 

 and of tropical diseases mention 

 must be made of the success of 

 the regulations designed to prevent 

 the importation of cholera, yellow 

 fever, and plague into Great Britain, 

 and of the great triumphs in the 

 prevention of malaria, yellow fever, 

 and Malta or Mediterranean fever. 



Moreover, the recent increase of 

 knowledge of diseases arising from 

 the deficiency or absence of certain 

 diet constituents, promises increas- 

 ingly great results in the preven- 

 tion of such diseases as beri-beri, 

 scurvy, and rickets. On the other 

 hand, despite public health efforts, 

 there has been some increase in the 

 deaths attributed to cancer, dia- 

 betes, and diseases which affect 

 the heart and blood-vessels. See 

 Hygiene and Public Health, L. C. 

 Parkes and H. R. Kenwood, 6th 

 ed. 1917. 



6387 



Public Health, ROYAL INSTI- 

 TUTE OF. British institute founded 

 in 1886 to promote the interests of 

 those engaged in official public 

 health work at home or abroad, 

 or in the public services, and to 

 assist in the investigation and 

 study of all branches of public 

 health. The institute has well- 

 equipped chemical and bacterio- 

 logical laboratories for the purpose 

 of study and research. Investiga- 

 tions are undertaken for municipal 

 and other bodies and medical prac- 

 titioners. Courses of lectures are 

 given on tuberculosis, military 

 hygiene, and domestic hygiene. 

 The address of the institute is 37, 

 Russell Square, London, W.C. 



Public House. Licensed house 

 where alcoholic liquors are pro- 

 vided for retail sale and consump- 

 tion within specified hours. See 

 Beer-house ; Inn ; Licensing Laws. 



Public House Trust. Brit- 

 ish organization having for its 

 object the promotion of tem- 

 perance by supplying food and 

 drink under conditions that do not 

 encourage the sale of alcoholic 

 liquor. The movement was ini- 

 tiated about 1905, the chief pro- 

 moters being Earl Grey and Bishop 

 Jayne. The central association is 

 at 193, Regent Street, W., and 

 there were in 1921 17 trust com- 

 panies in the U.K., of which 12 

 were in England. More than 300 

 houses were then under trust 

 management. The system provides 

 that the managers shall have a 

 fixed salary, and no interest in 

 selling alcoholic liquor, their pro- 

 fits coming from the sale of food 

 and other drinks, e.g. tea, coffee, 

 mineral waters, etc. 



Publicity. Term used as an 

 extension of advertising. In recent 

 years it has become usual for all 

 great business undertakings to 

 employ men to make their work 

 known in every possible way. 

 Publicity thus includes, in addition 

 to newspaper advertising, the pre- 

 paration of booklets and other 

 literature, the display of posters, 

 the entertaining of influential per- 

 sons, and anything else that may 

 serve the end in view. During the 

 Great War several Government 

 departments had directors of pub- 

 licity, who were especially pro- 

 minent in attracting recruits to 

 the army, and in organizing cam- 

 paigns for raising loans. .The 

 ministry of food had also a direc- 

 tor of publicity. See Advertising. 



Public Policy. Comprehensive 

 legal term for the overwhelming 

 interest of the country as a whole. 

 In English law, a contract which 

 is immoral, or in unreasonable 

 restraint of trade, or of a fraudu- 

 lent or criminal character, is said 



PUBLIC SCHOOL 



to be against public policy, and is 

 unenforceable. The courts will 

 not lightly hold a contract to be 

 void on this ground. The chief 

 classes of contracts attacked by 

 the doctrine are contracts not to 

 trade, or not to work, and for this 

 reason all trade unions, whether 

 of masters or men, cannot enforce 

 at law the contracts entered into 

 between them and their members. 



Public Prosecutor. In Eng- 

 land, a high legal official, whose 

 duty it is to undertake, on behalf 

 of the government, the prosecution 

 of persons charged with serious 

 crimes. All cases of treason are 

 prosecuted by him, and many other 

 cases of great gravity. He has the 

 right to interfere at any stage of 

 the preliminary proceedings in a 

 criminal case, and to take the pro- 

 secution out of the hands of the 

 local police or of a private prose- 

 cutor. Anyone who charges 

 another with the commission of a 

 serious crime may send informa- 

 tion to the public prosecutor, to 

 take action if thought desirable. 

 When a judge, in the course of a 

 civil trial, discovers that someone 

 has apparently committed a crime, 

 he frequently orders the papers in 

 the case to be sent to the public 

 prosecutor. His office is in White- 

 hall, London, S.W. 



Public School. Name given in 

 the United Kingdom and else- 

 where to a certain type of school. 

 Definitions vary. In one sense 

 public schools "are the antithesis 

 of private schools, as they are con- 

 trolled by a board of governors or 

 other authority, and are not private 

 property. In another sense public 

 schools are those maintained by 

 public funds, and thus all the ele- 

 mentary and secondary schools 

 under the board of education and 

 the various local authorities are 

 public schools. The term is often 

 confined to schools for boys, but 

 to-day schools for girls are equally 

 public schools, whatever test be 

 applied. 



The most general use of this 

 term, however, is for certain large 

 schools for boys run on what are 

 called public school lines. These in- 

 clude the prefectoral or monitorial 

 system, i.e. participation by senior 

 boys in the maintenance of discip- 

 line, the arrangement of the pupils 

 in forms, their division into houses 

 partly for the sake of competition, 

 and a good deal of attention to 

 sport. Another feature was the 

 predominance of the classics in the 

 curriculum, and although modern 

 subjects have been introduced, the 

 public schools remain the places 

 where Greek and Latin are thor- 

 oughly taught. Such schools only 

 take boys who are over 12 or 13 



