Welch
WILLIAM HENRY, an American pathologist, born in Norfolk, Conn., in 1850. He graduated from Yale in 1870, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1875. He carried on post-graduate courses in Germany, and in 1879 became professor of pathological anatomy and general pathology at Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He practiced in this post until 1884, when he was appointed Baxley professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University, Here he served until 1916, for several years also occupying the post of dean of the medical faculty. In the latter year he was director of the School of Hygiene and Public Health of Johns Hopkins University. He was also president of the Maryland State Board of Health, and president of the board of directors of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research from 1901. From 1906 he was a trustee of the Carnegie Institution. He lectured at the Charing Cross Hospital in London and in other hospitals. He was a member of many American and foreign medical societies, wrote "General Pathology of Fever" (1880); "Bacteriology of Surgical Infections" (1895); "Thrombosis and Embolism" (1899), and contributed many articles to medical magazines.
WELFARE WORK. During the World War great impetus was given to welfare work in the United States as well as in other countries. The term, while of wide application, has in practice been applied in the main to the efforts made by employers to improve the working and living conditions of those in their employ. It has resulted WELFARE WORK in a great deal of attention being given to matters touching on the health of the working people, such as food and housing, as well as to the environment amid which their work is performed. The methods adopted to improve conditions have included rearrangements and improvements of lighting and heating and atmosph atmospheric conditions, and the shortening of the working day. To these have been added the establishment of facilities for recreation and refreshment, as well as lavatories and rest rooms. Where a large view has been taken of the obligations of the employer, and in communities which are small enough, an effort has been made to provide entertainment and occupation even outside of the hours of work. Club houses have been established, teams for various sports have been made up, playgrounds have been provided, recreational groups have been formed with facilities in chosen lines, there has been attention given to the housing of the workers, to nursing and medical attention, the promotion of gardening, premiums to stimulate rivalry in the care of the home and its environs, the institution of flower gardens, and numerous other activities warranted by local conditions and the desires of the working people themselves.
It was seen in the course of the war what opportunities in this line had been opened by the great powers with which the administration had been intrusted, and a great deal of work in that direction was done in the industries under the control of the Government. The housing problem received marked attention, and emergency hospitals established and visiting nurse work developed. Statistics compiled by the Government showed that among private industrial establishments over one-third were were active in social betterment work among the families of the workers.
Playgrounds, visiting nurses, domestic science classes, systems of charitable relief and the like were in vogue in connection with many of these establishments. The work in the United States was only a reflex of similar work done in various countries of Europe, and developed under the influences of the war. In Germany welfare work has been developed on lines so remarkable that the factory portion of a town in a German city is often the most beautiful part of it. Welfare work in connection with large industrial establishments has also been greatly developed in Great Britain, and there, as in other countries, new activities in that direction were opened up by the great expansion in certain lines of industry during the war.