FAMILY HEALTH
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sut,—Your admirable article on " Family Health " in the issue of The Spectator of May 27th is certain to arouse widespread public interest.
The work to which the Pioneer Health Centre at Peckham has addressed itself is of fundamental importance, and is, as one of your correspondents truly points out, " one of the few hopes of civilisation." Of particular significance is your remark that " the health, in its true sense, of the community cannot be maintained at a high level merely by the diagnosis and treatment of disease already in an advanced stage." This was the principle which dominated the great work of the late Sir James Mackenzie. It is apparently not as generally known as it might be that it was with the express purpose of having this great principle put into operation that Mackenzie gave up his work in London in 1918 in order to found in St. Andrews the Institute for Clinical Research which now bears his name. In this Institute a systematic attempt is made to record the medical histories of large numbers of individuals during the whole of their lives, to correlate their health conditions with environmental and other influences, and to note the earliest signs of departure from health in order to assess the significance of such early symptoms.
As the work of the James Mackenzie Institute has been carried on for 20 years, and is still proceeding, it is perhaps a little misleading to suggest that no other institution in this country has recognised, or is attempting to deal with, the great problem so lucidly presented in your leading article.—Yours
Chairman of the Management Committee. The lames Mackenzie Institute for Clinical Research; St. Andrews, Fife.
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