Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria.

  • Nigeria. Medical Department.
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/172 (page 36)
    Lectures. 63. In Lagos the training of Sanitary Inspectors has been conducted by Dr. Dalziel and Dr. Beringer during the periods each was acting as Medical Officer of Health. This work of tuition involves considerable energy on the part of the Medical Officer of Healfch who delivers lectures, holds demonstrations and defines routine duties for practical work in the Native town, keeping a keen eye on their work and progress, A course in general education is also given to the Sanitary Inspectors in Training by the staff at King s College to whom the thanks of the Sanitary Branch is due. 64 Teaching of Hygiene, and Sanitation in Schools.—On this subject the following note has been made by the Director of Education:— “The principles of Elementary Hygiene and Sanitation have “been taught during the year in the majority of schools under “ Government inspection.” “ A paper in this subject is set to candidates for Teachers “ Certificate Examination ” “ Fair progress has been made in schools in large^ towns and “ practical results are gradually making themselves felt.” “In up country schools it is more difficult to make advance “ chiefly owing to local conditions and environments. “ Improvement may be expected with an increase in the number “ of teachers who have been through a Training College Course ’ . Short sanitary lectures are given to chiefs and their headmen and to senior pupils in schools by Sanitary Officers when on tours of inspec¬ tion In advising the chiefs on sanitary matters relative to their towns the assistance of Political Officers in charge of the district or province is always invoked. 65. Registrar Vital Statistics.—The Senior Sanitary Officer is also Principal of Vital Statistics under the Births, Deaths and Burials Ordinance 1617. The duties as Principal Registrar are growing every year and often considerable time has to be devoted to the woik, T e sphere of influence of his duties has been increased by the application of the Ordinance, so far as non-natives are concerned, to the Noithem Provinces also and it will be very considerably increased still further when the Births and Deaths of natives become registrable m townships of both the Southern and Northern Provinces, involving an increase in the work of the staff also. The fact that the Senior Sanitary Officer holds the post of Principal Registrar is advantageous from the sanitary point of view more especially for Lagos which is a first class township where Births and Deaths in natives have to be registered. Moreover owing to the large number of private practitioners in Lagos the number of certified deaths is not only comparatively large but steadily increasing and the observations on Vital Statistics of very much greater value from the public health and sanitary point of view. 66. In view of the fact that registration of both non-natives and natives for Lagos and Ebute Metta has now long been accurately maintained which permits of their being more comparable from year to year a summary of some of the more important observations in connec¬ tion with these statistics is recorded hereunder: