DIET AND NUTRITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24418, 2 October 1940, Page 8

DIET AND NUTRITION

SPECIAL RESEARCH OFFICER DR MURIEL BELL APPOINTED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON. Oct. 1. The appointment of Dr Muriel Bell tp the dual post of medical research officer under the Nutrition Research Committee and nutritionist to the Department of Health was announced tonight by the Minister of Health, Mr H. T. Armstrong. This appointment had been contemplated for some time, the Minister said, and present-day war conditions made it more desirable than ever that it should be made with a view to ensuring that the nutrition of the public was not allowed to suffer. “Dr Bell has for some years past been a member of the staff of the physiology department of the Medical School at Dunedin,” Mr Armstrong said, and while there has undertaken a considerable amount of research relating to nutrition. She is a member of the Board of Health and also of the Medical Research Committee set up some years ago to undertake research work into the subject of nutrition. She has been actively associated with the work of this committee, and it is now proposed that she shall hold the dual post to which she has been appointed." The Minister further explained that among the other duties Dr Bell would be asked to interest herself in would be the dietary of orphanages, boarding schools, and other institutions whether under the control of the Government or private bodies, to advise in regard to the teaching of dietetics in the training colleges and schools, and generally to be the Health Department’s adviser in all matters pertaining to nutrition. He added that the department had reported to him that in its opinion there was no one else in New Zealand available and better fitted for the position than Dr Bell.