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Vale-atque ave
EDITORIAL
51
For a shopper to protest at the time when she sees food unhygienically handled is an act requiring some moral courage, though there is a little evidence that the climate of public opinion is changing. Leaflets may offer some encouragement but their effect by themselves will, we fear, be only modest. On the other hand, if the people who receive the leaflets are otherwise encouraged at the same time, the effect might be substantial. What is required, in fact, is an intensive national and local effort in which thehealth services offer all possible simultaneous encouragement. A new set of "commandments" for food-handlers is also about to be issued, so that food shops and kitchens will be alerted as thehousewife is being exhorted. Will the proprietors of these establishments and their managers and supervisors join in ? It may be that if the local health departments prepare the ground in advance we could at last see the spectacle of food shops saying to the public "You ask for hygiene ~ we offer it." If this could happen in even a few of the principal shops in every locality, there cot',ld be a start along the right road and further progress, though it might take time, would certainly be easier. "VALE--ATQ UE AVE" IT is impossible to ignore and difficult to be phlegmatic about the recent act of union by which the Metropolitan Branch and the Home Counties Branch of the Society have surrendered their rcparate identitities and have become the new London and Home Counties Branch. This would seem to be a not illogical sequel to the re-modelling of London government. The number of M.Os.H. in the Greater London area has been drastically reduced, though the total number of public health doctors in that area remains much the same. More important, the functional differences which distinguished the Metropolitan Boroughs, as sanitary au.',,horities only, from the outer London Boroughs, as sanitary authorities with county divisional responsibilities, have been removed, and the area is now one of similar "most-purpose" authorities. There remain, however, functional distinctions between authorities in the Greater London area and authorities in the rest of the Home Counties territory; we hope that these will not produce any divisions within the new amalgamated Branch. The Metropolitan Branch was, of course, the direct successor in spirit of the Association of Metropolitan M.Os.H., which was the Society's founding body, and something of the aura of tradition had remained with it. The Home Counties Branch, though a comparative parvenu, had been one of the most active of all the branches, and both of them have contributed in great measure to the Society's life and development. In part, this last has been the result of geographical accident. The members of these branches have been within easy reach of London and there has been an obvious tendency to look to them for senior office-holders and for others who could take on the burdens of headquarters work. In addition, within a twentymile radius of London there has been the greatest concentration of M.Os.H. and
52
PUBLIC
HEALTH
V O L . L X X X I NO. 2
other public health doctors in the country, so that not only at meetings of the two branches but at meetings of those Groups which regard London as a convenient venue there has been a preponderance of doctors from the metropolitan and suburban area. But the branches have also provided a high proportion of the "characters" who have helped to make the history of the Society and of the Public Health Serv,~ce. The Presidency has been a rotating ottice, with the claims of tile countr~ as a whole taken into account, and though the two branches have supplied only their fair share of Presidents, they may well claim to have produced the greatest number of men and women who have deserved to sit in the Chair but have not done so. The Metropolitan Boroughs have long had a special attraction for outstanding M.Os.H. in spite of their limited public health functions; the posts had .,iome special cachet and the Boroughs did not consider themselves too strictly bound to pay salaries within the olficiai scales. The wealthy outer London boroughs, especially in the years between the wars, were eager to develop their services and offered great scope for the able and progressive man with ideas. A glance at a copy of the Society's roll of members for any time during the 'thirties is illuminating; it shows not only that this area had more than its statistical share of the eminent but that it was serving as a nursery for some of those who were to achieve prominence later. In the last eighteen years some of the glory and glamour has departed. At times it has seemed that the principal quality demanded of a M.O.H. in Greater London has been the capacity to bear adversity and frustration with fortitude and the last three or four years have t-ten particularly traumatic. However, this brand of fortitude has always been an asset to the M.O.H., even in the most favourable times, and the survivors of the recent carnage are not likely to be found wanting after their ordeal. It could be that the London conurbation may once again become the place of opportunity while the rest of the country suffers in its turn in whatever melting-pot the Royal Commission may be preparing. So long as workers in Public Health continue to remember that they are doctors and resist the twentieth century's worship of the human robot there will be time for, and profit in, the occasional recollection of traditions and of the vision, the courage and the endearing frailties of the men who made traditions. It is proper that the passing of these two Branches should be occasion for a moment of sentiment. The new Branch will surely have its glories to come, but those glories will be the greater if the qualities of the past can be retained as an inspiration for the future.
51
For a shopper to protest at the time when she sees food unhygienically handled is an act requiring some moral courage, though there is a little evidence that the climate of public opinion is changing. Leaflets may offer some encouragement but their effect by themselves will, we fear, be only modest. On the other hand, if the people who receive the leaflets are otherwise encouraged at the same time, the effect might be substantial. What is required, in fact, is an intensive national and local effort in which thehealth services offer all possible simultaneous encouragement. A new set of "commandments" for food-handlers is also about to be issued, so that food shops and kitchens will be alerted as thehousewife is being exhorted. Will the proprietors of these establishments and their managers and supervisors join in ? It may be that if the local health departments prepare the ground in advance we could at last see the spectacle of food shops saying to the public "You ask for hygiene ~ we offer it." If this could happen in even a few of the principal shops in every locality, there cot',ld be a start along the right road and further progress, though it might take time, would certainly be easier. "VALE--ATQ UE AVE" IT is impossible to ignore and difficult to be phlegmatic about the recent act of union by which the Metropolitan Branch and the Home Counties Branch of the Society have surrendered their rcparate identitities and have become the new London and Home Counties Branch. This would seem to be a not illogical sequel to the re-modelling of London government. The number of M.Os.H. in the Greater London area has been drastically reduced, though the total number of public health doctors in that area remains much the same. More important, the functional differences which distinguished the Metropolitan Boroughs, as sanitary au.',,horities only, from the outer London Boroughs, as sanitary authorities with county divisional responsibilities, have been removed, and the area is now one of similar "most-purpose" authorities. There remain, however, functional distinctions between authorities in the Greater London area and authorities in the rest of the Home Counties territory; we hope that these will not produce any divisions within the new amalgamated Branch. The Metropolitan Branch was, of course, the direct successor in spirit of the Association of Metropolitan M.Os.H., which was the Society's founding body, and something of the aura of tradition had remained with it. The Home Counties Branch, though a comparative parvenu, had been one of the most active of all the branches, and both of them have contributed in great measure to the Society's life and development. In part, this last has been the result of geographical accident. The members of these branches have been within easy reach of London and there has been an obvious tendency to look to them for senior office-holders and for others who could take on the burdens of headquarters work. In addition, within a twentymile radius of London there has been the greatest concentration of M.Os.H. and
52
PUBLIC
HEALTH
V O L . L X X X I NO. 2
other public health doctors in the country, so that not only at meetings of the two branches but at meetings of those Groups which regard London as a convenient venue there has been a preponderance of doctors from the metropolitan and suburban area. But the branches have also provided a high proportion of the "characters" who have helped to make the history of the Society and of the Public Health Serv,~ce. The Presidency has been a rotating ottice, with the claims of tile countr~ as a whole taken into account, and though the two branches have supplied only their fair share of Presidents, they may well claim to have produced the greatest number of men and women who have deserved to sit in the Chair but have not done so. The Metropolitan Boroughs have long had a special attraction for outstanding M.Os.H. in spite of their limited public health functions; the posts had .,iome special cachet and the Boroughs did not consider themselves too strictly bound to pay salaries within the olficiai scales. The wealthy outer London boroughs, especially in the years between the wars, were eager to develop their services and offered great scope for the able and progressive man with ideas. A glance at a copy of the Society's roll of members for any time during the 'thirties is illuminating; it shows not only that this area had more than its statistical share of the eminent but that it was serving as a nursery for some of those who were to achieve prominence later. In the last eighteen years some of the glory and glamour has departed. At times it has seemed that the principal quality demanded of a M.O.H. in Greater London has been the capacity to bear adversity and frustration with fortitude and the last three or four years have t-ten particularly traumatic. However, this brand of fortitude has always been an asset to the M.O.H., even in the most favourable times, and the survivors of the recent carnage are not likely to be found wanting after their ordeal. It could be that the London conurbation may once again become the place of opportunity while the rest of the country suffers in its turn in whatever melting-pot the Royal Commission may be preparing. So long as workers in Public Health continue to remember that they are doctors and resist the twentieth century's worship of the human robot there will be time for, and profit in, the occasional recollection of traditions and of the vision, the courage and the endearing frailties of the men who made traditions. It is proper that the passing of these two Branches should be occasion for a moment of sentiment. The new Branch will surely have its glories to come, but those glories will be the greater if the qualities of the past can be retained as an inspiration for the future.