PROPAGANDA FOR HEALTH
SIR,—In order to make the National Health Service something more than a Disease Service the Ministry could make use of the propaganda method now used by all States for many purposes, some beneficent, such as "Keep Death off *belts:tads," and those in connection with National Savings, Production and "Drink More (or less) Mslk."
The woeful lack of elementary knowledge concerning positive health gives great scope for this method. There are doubtless many differences of opinion among medical men, but. surely sufficient agreement on first principles to make such a campaign practicable. The tremendous number of proprietary purgatives offered for sale indicates where a start could be made The sale of these drugs points to'i widespread failure of a natural function.which ought to give no trouble at all to a healthy person. The multitude of " tonics" people need (or think they need) points to either nervous or physical debility of a degree which cannot be considered normal. The deplorable cigarette-sucking habit must have causes which it would be very profitable to discover and dissipate.
Again, children's health would be much improved if the amount of sleep they need at various ages could be got into the heads of the under- educated section of the population, together with plain information con- cerning the results of too little sleep. The evils of the "dummy," physical and psychological, should be plugged time after time ; and of the crowded cinema.
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