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75
How many of the whole number are Finsbury cases.
—A patient is said to belong to Finsbury by residence when he
has resided in the Borough for at least live years, or, if not yet
five years of age, since his birth. The period five years has been
arbitrarily assumed as one of a reasonable duration entitling to a
public health settlement, and also because it is generally asserted
that the average duration of a case of phthisis from early demonstrable
clinical signs to death is about live years. A case is
accredited to Finsbury by infection when the presumed duration
of the disease, as elicited by enquiry, is less than the length of
the patient's residence in the Borough.

The cases which may be definitely associated with the Borough
are the first two groups, and amount to 277, that is, to 72 per
cent. of the whole number.
The remaining 105 cases may be regarded as dumped cases
which had contracted the disease elsewhere and had come into
Finsbury when they were already stricken with consumption. The
Finsbury cases by residence had definite signs of the disease before
living in the Borough, but had lived here for five years or more.
The cases which were "Not Finsbury" had phthisis when they
first came into the Borough but had lived here for less than five
years. Fifteen of the cases lived in common lodging houses. The
number of patients who give false addresses is still very large.
They give false addresses when they enter institutions, and fresh
false addresses when they leave. In this way they hope to escape
the supervision which naturally follows notification. It is to be