31 JANUARY 1920, Page 19

Sir George Newman in a Preface to the Medical Supplement

of the forty-eighth Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1918-19 (Cmd. 462, Is. 3d. net), recalls the history of the series of Medical Reports begun by the late Sir John Simon in 1856 and now ended with the Board. It is true to say, as he does, that the Reports laid a firm foundation for preventive medicine In England. The volume includes, among other noteworthy articles, some instructive studies of the influenza epidemic of last winter in this country and abroad. Dr. Macowen observes that it is not easy to define the term " influenza " or to specify the signs and symptoms. Dr. Camwath is inclinea to think that there are several strains of the influenza virus, and that these vary in virulence and antigenic potency."