Medical Overhauling Every Five Years Dr. Charles E. Goddard, Medical Officer of Health, Harrow-on the-Hill, in his annual report states that as a causation of death in 1922, with the exception of senility, no factor was as prominent as heart disease, and when this disease is considered in conjunction with disease of arteries he wonders how much this cause could be mitigated or controlled.
"There is no doubt that many people drift imperceptibly into these troubles," he says.
"Possibly strong, active and in good health at 40, they have contracted habits—whether in eating, drinking, smoking, or working— in excess, which they continue till 50, often till 60, and even then think they can behave as they did at 30.
"Everyone would be well advised if they, say at 45, took stock of their condition and were overhauled thoroughly by their medical attendant every five years.
and in this way regulate their future so that they might pass useful and healthy lives to the end.
"T refer not to those who in-hent disease, or who cannot control their mode of living, but to those who permit 'a vicious circle of events.to shorten their days. No man who is strong and _healthy at 40 has any right to die in the next two or even three decades except by accident, and especially is this the case with those who have the gift of long-lasting on both sides by inherit tance.
"On the other hand, length of days is far from being desirable if, as is so often the case, we are enfeebled by disease and outlive our physical and mental capacity.
"The normal number of children that a woman should bear is four or five,'"' stys Dr. Goddard, "and this duty to the State should, if possible, be undertaken by all married people who are not only healthy but in affluent circumstances."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.