HL Deb 06 July 1932 vol 85 cc646-8WA
THE EARL OF IDDESLEIGH

asked His Majesty's Government what was the cost of producing an official report on "The Nomenclature of Diseases"; the number of persons to whom copies of that report have been sent gratis, and the number of copies that have been sold?

VISCOUNT GAGE

The particulars as to the cost and distribution of the sixth edition of the "Nomenclature of Diseases," 1931, for which my noble friend asks are as follows: The cost to public funds, which was limited to the expenses of printing and distributing, as distinct from the expenses of preparing, this edition of 73,000 copies of the Nomenclature, was £2,347. A gratuitous distribution of the Nomenclature has been made to 37,265 registered medical practitioners in Great Britain, and 2,989 copies have been supplied for official use, principally by medical officers in the Navy, Army, and Air Force. In addition, 50 bound and 50 unbound copies were furnished gratuitously to the Royal College of Physicians of London, who, through a Committee nominated by the President of the Royal College in 1929, undertook the whole labour and responsibility, without any expense to public funds, of preparing the new edition of the Nomenclature, of which the previous (fifth) edition was published so long ago as 1917. 2,980 copies have at present been sold, principally under arrangements with the Government of Northern Ireland and the Government of India by which the Nomenclature will be made available for the use of registered medical practitioners in Northern Ireland and in India.

I welcome the opportunity afforded by my noble friend's question of adding to these particulars a statement of the grounds on which it has been held justifiable in the public interest to make a gratuitous distribution of successive editions of the Nomenclature to registered medical practitioners. So long ago as 1857 it was represented to the Royal College of Physicians by a Committee of the Epidemiological Society that the Royal College, in co-operation with the Directors-General of the Medical Departments of the Navy and of the Army, Dr. Farr, acting for the Registrar-General, and the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company, should take charge of the work of drawing up a Nomenclature of Diseases with a view to its common use in the Services and in civil life. The Royal College acceded to these representations, and in 1869, having completed through a committee appointed by them the laborious task of preparing the first edition of the Nomenclature, sent a deputation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day (Mr. Robert Lowe, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) for the purpose of requesting him to circulate the Nomenclature among the members of the profession in the United Kingdom gratuitously.

A Treasury Minute of the 8th March, 1869, stated in the following terms, on which it would, I think, be difficult to improve to-day, their appreciation of the practical utility of the Nomenclature to every registered medical practitioner, and their reasons for approving its gratuitous distribution: My Lords are fully aware of the importance of perfecting the statistical registration of disease, and they are aware that in order to secure uniformity in the returns supplied to the Registrar-General an uniform Nomenclature of Disease is indispensable. My Lords are anxious to express their conviction of the great value of the labours which have been undergone by the Committee, and of the disinterested spirit in which the work was undertaken and completed. My Lords desire accordingly to prove that, on their part, they are prepared to make some effort in order to carry out the task thus set on foot by the College of Physicians and to aid in obtaining for the Nomenclature of Diseases that general usage which it is desirable that it should command. They are therefore ready to direct the Comptroller of the Stationery Department to procure for gratuitous distribution among the registered practitioners of the United Kingdom 20,000 copies of the work on such terms as he shall determine upon. The procedure thus laid down has been applied to the successive editions of the Nomenclature drawn up under the auspices of the Royal College of Physicians and published in 1854, 1596, 1906, 1917, and lastly in 1931.

My noble friend will, I am sure, agree that the passage of time has increased the regular and practical value of the Nomenclature in improving the accuracy of material on which local and national statistics are based, and in assisting the precision of medical diagnosis for the purposes of certificates of death and the numerous forms of certificates of sickness which registered medical practitioners are now bound by law, or may be requested, to give; and that the public, whose interest the Nomenclature ultimately serves, remain indebted to the Royal College for their voluntary action in bringing the Nomenclature into harmony with recent advances in medical science.

House adjourned at twenty minutes before eight o'clock.