Assessments of the changing pattern of health in the present century are made on the basis of very limited evidence. Problems in evaluating such evidence as age specific mortality rates are considered. Fuller exploitation of morbidity records is advocated. But this data is notoriously difficult...

Were cash benefits and welfare services available to the unemployed sufficient to protect them from ill-health? Recent reappraisals have tended to magnify the influence of welfare provision. The present review draws on hitherto unexploited, confidential reports of the Ministry of Health and...