London, June 16.
Mr. Walker Elliot, the Minister of Health, addressing the Rural i; trict Councils Association today, that the progress made in recent years in housing and other public health services in. rural parts of the country had produced remarkable results The general standardized death rate had gone down from 88 in 1931 to 8.2 in 1937 in the rural districts of England and Wales and outside the Greater London area. lafantile mortality declined from 85.000 lives at in 1931 to 50,000 in 1937. nal mortality declined from 4.02 per thousand of the total births in 1931 to 3.44 in 1937.
The tuberculosis death rate ge-clined from 687 per one million in 1931 to 544 per one million in 1937.
The increased fitness of the nation, to which these services had contributed, was also strikingly shown by the results of the medical examinations of young men of 20 to 21, now coming forward under the Military Training Act. During the first period, 17,856 militiamen were medically examined.
Of this number, 15,081 were passed 8s grade one. This represented 84.5 per cent. of all those coming forward, An additional 1,583, or 88 per cent, were put into grade two—fit except for minor disabilities,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.