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Oxen are shot but humane slaughtering has not yet been extended to sheep, goats and pigs.
The numbers of animals dealt with at the abattoirs in 1937 were as follows: Cattle 72,218, swine 390,519, sheep and goats 18,502.
These activities are supervised by the Veterinary Branch of the Sanitary Department.
As might be expected in a territory where so large a proportion of the population subsist on very low wages and where a few cents makes all the difference between sufficient food and starvation or at least serious under-nutrition, certain deficiency diseases are commonly met with.
Osteomalacia, pellagra, rickets and scurvy are rarely recognised but beri beri, including the infantile variety, constitutes a serious problem and occasions much incapacity, ill-health and, in infants, not infrequently a fatal ending.
Out of a total of 34,635 deaths registered in 1937, 1,661 were attributed directly to beri beri, a ratio of nearly 48 per thousand deaths from all causes.
Much information of value is to be anticipated from the Nutrition Research Committee established to investigate nutritional problems in the Colony.
(B) MEASURES TAKEN TO SPREAD THE KNOWLEDGE OF HYGIENE & SANITATION.
Hygiene is one of the subjects on the curriculum in a large proportion of the schools. Unfortunately many schools suffer from such serious health deficiencies in the matter of light, ventilation and sanitary accommodation that lessons in hygiene possess little point.
Personal hygiene and mothercraft is taught to the women attending the maternal and child welfare centres and domestic hygiene by the Health Nurses when they visit the homes in the districts.
A reasonable standard of hygiene is aimed at in the homes of some seventy-six registered midwives which are inspected periodically by the Supervisor of Midwives (a woman doctor) and her staff. The better types of these serve as examples of how to maintain hygienic conditions in homes in the midst of the overcrowded areas.
It might be expected that the sanitary inspectorate should take an important part in instructing the general public in the advantages of living in reasonably hygienic surroundings and no doubt useful work may be done at times along these lines.
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