A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related ...

Fourth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases introduced. See 1940.
1931 Cont - 1933
1931 cont National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux founded.
London Voluntary Hospitals Committee formed. It was reconstituted in 1935 to
cooperate with the London County Council in planning hospitals in London.
The electron microscope, invented by M Knott and E Ruska, enabled viruses to be
seen.
William Goodpasture devised a technique for cultivating viruses (see 1897).
1932 Unemployment reached a peak figure of 2,745,000, dropping to 1,755,000 in 1936 and
to 1,514,000 in 1939. The unemployment was aggravated by falling emigration and rising
immigration. See 1934.
Children and Young Persons Act (22&23 Geo.V, c.46) amended and consolidated
previous acts dealing with the protection and welfare of children and young persons and the
treatment of young offenders. A similar act (c.47) was passed for Scotland. See 1933.
Town and Country Planning Act (22&23 Geo.V, c.48) attempted a fresh start with
planning legislation. It set out procedures for submitting and approving planning schemes; for
the preservation of certain buildings; compensation; and for the compulsory purchase of land.
Equivalent provisions were made for Scotland (c.49). See 1935.
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity
recommended substantial improvements in antenatal and postnatal care; in the training of
medical staff; and in the organisation of the midwifery services. The Committee had
organised a study of maternal mortality which became the forerunner of the series of
confidential enquiries into maternal deaths. See 1937.
The Report of the Lancet Commission on Nursing (chairman, the Earl of Crawford and
Balcarres) described the evolution of British nursing and its present troubles. "The most
noticeable of the anomalies, and one which really includes all the rest, is the contrast between
the degree of responsibility assigned to the probationer in the wards and the degree of
confidence reposed in her in the Nurses' Home", the report commented. It recommended
substantial increases in pay for trained nurses; review of the hours of work of probationary
nurses, who should be given good training and have reasonable freedom and privacy; and all
nurses should be relieved of domestic duties not directly concerned with patient care (Lancet,
1: 415-6; 473-5; 532-4; and 585-8). See 1939.
The Scottish Association of Occupational Therapists founded; the English Association
was founded in 1936. See 1951.
John Cockcroft (later Sir, 1897-1967, physicist at Cambridge) and Ernest Walton split
the atom for the first time (see 1919).
"Medicine and the State" by Sir Arthur Newsholme (1857-1943, chief medical officer
to the Local Government Board 1909-19) published. In the introduction he stated "The
increasing accuracy and complexity of medical science is a chief cause of the modern
problems of medical care with which this volume is concerned". Among his aphorisms were
"Average humanity has not yet learned to use community privileges with due regard to
communal economy in the absence of a personal motive for carefulness"; and "The axiom
that the object of a community service is to do away with group competition and bring in its
place cooperation and teamwork is especially applicable to all public health and medical
work; and the spirit of this axiom is infringed by the existence of separate, sometimes
competing, occasionally conflicting, services under local and central control".