So, also in the control of venereal diseases, early and prompt diagnosis and treatment must go hand in hand with police measures for the suppression of prostitution, with educational work respecting these diseases, and with the inculcation of a higher standard of morality, considered as part of the general cultivation of moral self-restraint. And in the prevention of infant mortality and of the even more serious handicapping of the up-growing child produced by the factors of infant mortality, we need to bring to bear all our medical and hygienic knowledge, and to realise that until every mother in the land is furnished with the elementary requirements, domestic, sanitary, social, and medical, for rearing a healthy family, we have no right to mental comfort while enjoying these elementary needs of family life ourselves. Coöperation and solidarity of effort are needed on the part of the multitude of workers engaged in social work for the community—official and non-official; and in bringing this about the physician of the early future will, I am confident, take a leading part. FOOTNOTES: [14] An address to the Alpha-Kappa-Kappa Club, Johns Hopkins University, Wednesday, December 10, 1919. CHAPTER VII THE OBSTACLES TO AND IDEALS OF HEALTH PROGRESS[15] There are two ways in which Health Problems can be approached: what may be called the microscopic method, which examines in minute detail each individual problem; and the conspective method, in which an attempt is made to obtain an unbiased and comparative view of the chief problems concerned, in order that their relative importance may be assessed, and the possibilities of improvement may be gauged. In proposing to myself the latter and more difficult task, I appreciate the impossibility of discussing all the items which emerge. I would not have us forget what has already been achieved. Taking the national figures for England and Wales as an illustration, it is noteworthy that the death-rate from all causes fell from 22.4 per 1,000 of population in 1846-50 to 13.8 in 1911-15, a reduction of nearly 40 per cent. Comparing the decennium 1871-80 with the quinquennium 1911-15, the incidence of reduction of death-rate at different ages was as follows: _Percentage reduction in death-rate_ Age 0-5 42 5-10 48 10-15 43 15-20 46 20-25 51 25-35 50 35-45 42 45-55 25 55-65 15 65-75 10 75-85 7 85 and upwards 15