189

Dr. Mudalyiar's "Report on an investigation into the causes of Maternal
Mortality in Madras" was published in 1932.

   2. At the Annual Conference of Research Workers in India held in
1935 proposals for the establishment of an Advisory Committee on
Maternal Mortality and Morbidity were adopted. The first statistical
survey under the auspices of the Indian Research Fund Association was
carried out in Calcutta by Dr. M. I. Neal during 1936-37 and the report
will shortly be ready for publication. Similar surveys are now in progress
in Bombay under the direction of Dr.J. Jhirad and in a rural area in
Bihar. These surveys are expected not only to provide data for further
research on the more important specific causes of deaths, but also, data
from which conclusions can be drawn and recommendations made for the
improvement and expansion of existing midwifery services.

   3. Anaemias associated with childbearing are second only to sepsis
as a cause of maternal mortality and morbidity and it is not surprising
that the major part of other researches in this field during the past 3 years
has been concerned with the types, causes and treatment of anaemias of
pregnancy.

   4. The following are the more recently published papers:—

1. M. I. Balfour 1933 Maternity Conditions and Anaemias
in the Assam Tea Gardens. Jl.
Assoc. Med. Women in India, Vol. 21. pp. 28/38.
2. Lucy Wills 1934 Studies in Pernicious Anaemias of
Pregnancy—Part VT. Indian Jl.
of Med. Research—Vol. 21, p. 669.
3. L. E. Napier 1935 Enquiry into anaemia of women.
(A short note published in the
Report of the S. A. B. for the year
1st April to 31st December 1935,.
p. 109).

   5. The need for further statistical surveys, for research on the bacterio-
logy of puerperal sepsis, on taxaemias of pregnancy and for further work
on anaemia is unquestioned. Women's Hospitals provide abundant
material but the time of the medical staffs of these hospitals is too fully
taken up with routine duties to permit the work to be undertaken. There
is the further difficulty that opportunities for medical women to get an
insight into research methods and to develop a capacity for scientific
research are almost non-existent. The Council of the Association of
Medical Women in India, deeply conscious of their responsibilities in the
matter, have under consideration a proposal to establish a post-graduate
school and research department possibly in connection with the Dufferin
Hospital in Calcutta. The inauguration of this scheme would be a
tremendous stimulus to the scientific study of diseases associated with
child bearing and would do much to remove the relative neglect of
research on problems so vitally connected with the building up of a fitter
nation.