777

WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES.

Housing in Newport.THE population of Newport, Mon., is now approach-

ing 100,000, and has increased during the ten yearsending 1911 by nearly 25 per cent. The proximityto the seaboard on the one hand and to the coal-fields on the other is attracting many new industriesto the town; one large undertaking about to beestablished will employ some 3000 men, and othersmaller enterprises are being organised. Already3500 houses in the town are occupied by more thanone family, and of the 15,000 houses in the boroughonly 133 were unoccupied at the end of 1913. Inthese circumstances the corporation has decided toerect 100 dwellings under the provisions of Part III.of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890,and the medical officer of health, Dr. J. Howard-Jones, is urging the preparation of a town planningscheme which would have to be on a site or sitesbeyond the boundaries of the borough. At a housingconference of delegates from local authorities inSouth Wales, Monmouthshire, and Herefordshire,held at Newport on Feb. 26th, the Mayor of Newportsuggested that the funds of the Miners’ Federationand of the railway workers’ organisations mightwith advantage be used in the promotion of housingschemes. Mr. H. R. Aldridge, secretary of theNational Housing and Town Planning Council,urged that the funds of the Post Office Savings Bankmight be used for housing purposes, in which case alower rate of interest would be paid by localauthorities who erected houses.

Conditions affecting a High Birtla-7°ate.At the last meeting of the West of England and

South Wales Branch of the Society of MedicalOfficers of Health held at Swansea, there was adiscussion upon the influence of housing conditionsand of the ingestion of lead on the limitation offamilies. Dr. T. E. Francis, medical officer of healthof Llanelly, pointed out that where good sanitaryconditions prevailed families were small, and hequoted in support of this contention the fact thatthe birth-rate was much higher in rural than inurban districts. He had found that in Llanelly theward with the lowest birth-rate had the smallestproportion of tenements rated under £ 10 per annum,and that in the ward with the largest proportion,78 per cent., of small tenements the birth-rate wasthe highest. Dr. J. D. Jenkins, medical officer ofhealth of the Rhondda urban district, consideredthat overcrowding of houses influenced the birth-rate not in the direction of the limitation of families,but rather in the direction of the increase in thebirth-rate by promoting early marriages and bytending to increase the number of illegitimate births.He also agreed that there was some justification forattributing the diminished and diminishing birth-rate in the Rhondda valleys to improved and betterhousing conditions. On the question as to whether ’Ilead poisoning affected the birth-rate, he comparedtwo districts in the Rhondda valleys, one of which issupplied with water having plumbo-solvent qualitiesand the other devoid of such qualities. In theformer area there have been many pronounced casesof lead poisoning, and in the ten years 1903-12the birth-rate was 37 per 1000, compared with 39’4per 1000 in the other area. During the first half ofthe decennium the difference in the two areas was3’2 per 1000, and in the second half only 1’3 per1000, and it was during the second half that specialmeasures were taken to remove the plumbo-solvency of the water. Dr. Thomas Evans, medical

officer of health of Swansea, was of opinion thatthe birth-rate was kept up by overcrowding. Heconsidered that when the family of a working manincreased and he had to move to a larger house hisrental should not be raised.

The " AforM<x?’.!/ at Princetown.

At an inquest recently held at Princetown (Devon)the medical man who performed the necropsy com-plained of the

"

mortuary," which, he said, was anabsolute disgrace, being only a little tin-coveredbuilding with no windovP, no place to hang a coat orto wash the hands, with the door wide open to thepublic thoroughfare. People looked in out of morbidcuriosity. The coroner remarked that it was ascandal and said he would communicate with theparish council.

Shortage of Jl.fidu:ives in Devon.At the meeting of the Devonshire Nursing Asso-

ciation held on Feb. 27th the county medical officerof health, Mr. G. Adkins, drew attention to the

shortage of trained midwives in Devonshire. Mr.Adkins stated that there were 200 untrainedmidwives in the county and only about six of thesecarried out the rules of the Central MidwivesBoard. The condition was really appalling, but thePublic Health Committee had sent the names ofmany of these women to the Central MidwivesBoard, and they had all been removed from the roll,and a like course would be followed in the case ofothers.

Bristol Medical Dramatic Club.

The Bristol Medical Dramatic Club recently gavetheir thirty-sixth annual performance, when The&Ugrave;pper Crnst was played on five occasions at AllSaints Hall, Clifton, the performances being givenin aid of the Bristol Eye Hospital. The comedywas ably rendered to a large and appreciativeaudience.

The late Dl’. John Ernest Paul.

The funeral of the late Dr. J. E. Paul took placeat Torquay on Feb. 17th, and was largely attendedby the local members of the medical profession.Dr. Paul, who received his medical education atUniversity College Hospital, London, qualifiedL.R.C.P. Lond. and M.R.C.S. Eng. in 1890, and

graduated M.D. Lond. in 1892. After holding resi-dent appointments at University College HospitalDr. Paul settled in Torquay, where he becamehonorary physician to the Western Hospital for

Consumption, Erith House, Rosehill Children’sHospital, &c. Dr. Paul was highly respected, andhe will be much missed in Torquay.March 10th.

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IRELAND.

The Royal Colleges and the Working of theNational Insurance Act.

LAST autumn complaints were made to thetwo Royal Colleges of Ireland as to alleged un-professional conduct of certain Licentiates of the

Colleges in the carrying out of the duties of theoffices which they had accepted under the NationalInsurance Act. It was alleged that in the courseof examining members of Approved Societieswho were claiming sickness benefit some medicaladvisers or referees had not only visited patientsunder the care of other practitioners withoutthe knowledge of the latter, but had com-

mented adversely on the treatment given. The

Colleges have so far postponed investigations ofspecific complaints, but have thought it wise to

suggest rules of conduct by following which friction