Labour Law

LABOUR LAW.) Port Sanitary Administration.—Port sanitary authorities are constituted by order of the Ministry of Health. They carry out duties imposed by the regulations relating to cholera, plague and yellow fever and other "quarantine" work according to the system of International Sanitary Conventions to which this coun try is party; the Aliens Order 1920, the Port Sanitary Authorities (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1920, and the Public Health (Imported Food) Regulations 1925. The sanitary staff of a port sanitary authority consists of the Port Medical Officer of Health and such assistants as the volume of work demands. In recognition of the national importance of this work, half the approved ex penditure of a port sanitary authority is defrayed out of Central Governments funds.

International

Health.—Many public health problems are international in character and there is evident need for some or ganization which will enable the nations to pool their experience and, where necessary, to co-operate in the application of such measures as are practicable for the prevention and control of dis ease. The first attempt to secure international uniformity in matters of quarantine was made in Paris in 1851 when a Conven tion embodying the precautions against infectious diseases which were then regarded as appropriate was signed by the participating countries. Modifications have been introduced into this Conven tion from time to time and in the Rome Agreement of 1907 an office or bureau called the International Office of Public Health was established in Paris to consider how best the convention could be amended and kept abreast with medical science. England, by reason of its vast international traffic, has been very directly interested in these conventions and has long been at pains to introduce a spirit of reasonableness into their requirements. The last convention, which was signed in Paris in 1926 by the repre sentatives of 7o different nations, embodies most of the views that have long been held and practised in this country. This convention aims at securing what is necessary for the prevention of the introduction of disease with the minimum of interference to commerce and travel.

In the Peace Covenant a clause was introduced providing for the establishment of a health organisation at Geneva under the aegis of the League of Nations. The functions of this organisation cover practically the whole field of preventive medicine wherever co-operation between the nations is desirable or essential. By ar

rangements with the international office in Paris it undertakes the collection and dissemination of current information on epidemic disease : it gives assistance in times of national emergency as dur ing the great epidemic of typhus in Russia in 1919, during the epidemic of malaria in Southern Russia, in Greece during the influx of refugees from Asia Minor and other parts of Turkey, and during the recent outbreak of dengue in Athens. It has done much to secure the standardization of various medical prepara tions, such as insulin, pituitrin and certain of the antitoxins. It has promoted inquiry into cancer, certain aspects of maternity and child welfare and tuberculosis.

Public Health Finance.

The expenses of the public health services are defrayed for the most part out of local rates (general district rate or special rate), but assistance is given by the Central Government in respect of what are known as the "grant aided services." Thus half the approved expenditure on school medical inspection, maternity and child welfare work, tuberculosis and port sanitary services, and three-quarters of the expenditure on venereal diseases is defrayed from funds provided by the Treasury. With the exception of certain of the larger boroughs, half the salaries of the medical officers of health and of the sanitary in spectors is refunded out of Exchequer contribution grant.

The question of the substitution of a block grant covering all health services for these special grants-in-aid is at present under consideration by Parliament. (G. Buc.) A definition which expresses admirably the social and scientific conception of public health in America is that of Winslow, "Public health is the science and art of preventing disease and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of social machinery which will ensure to every individual a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health." Progress in public health is shown by the following facts.