Abstract
THE seventeenth annual report of the Ministry of Health, recently issued, summarizes the work of the Ministry during 1935-36 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1936. 5s. net). The services administered by the Department involved expenditure amounting to £159,500,000. About one expectant mother in every two now makes use of local authorities' facilities for ante-natal examination, a steady increase on previous years. Maternal mortality was 3-93 per 1,000 births, the lowest figure since 1924. Infantile mortality, that is, deaths of infants less than one year of age, was 57 per 1,000 births, the lowest figure on record. The total deaths from all forms of tuberculosis fell below 30,000 for the first time on record. Of other infectious diseases, diphtheria showed some decline in 1935, only one case of smallpox was notified in that year, the deaths from pneumonia were nearly 1,000 fewer, and scarlet fever and measles were less prevalent. Much progress is reported in slum clearance, abatement of overcrowding, and in town and country planning. As regards public assistance, progress continues to be made in eliminating small and old-fashioned country institutions, and vagrancy appears to be steadily declining. Some 11 million men and 5J million women in England and Wales are now entitled to health insurance benefits, upon which £27,780,000 was spent in 1935. The annual State contribution for widows, orphans, and old age pensions grows automatically by one million a year until 1943, and is now (1936-37) £15,000,000. The section upon food gives information on new administrative measures, and details of the examination of 143,831 samples of food and drugs, of which 7,972 were given adverse reports.
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The Ministry of Health. Nature 139, 21 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139021a0