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deaths from tuberculosis, a decline so pronounced as to warrant the
hope that if it continues tuberculosis will be conquered within the next
twenty-five years. The advances in the early diagnosis of this disease
by X-ray examination, the progress of immunization by B.C.G. vaccine
in those exposed to infection but not already infected, the application of
modern surgical procedures ranging from artificial pneumothorax to
the excision of diseased lung and the discovery and application of such
therapeutic substances as Streptomycin have established a marked
ascendancy over this age-long enemy once eligible for the melancholy
title " Captain of the Men of Death
The incidence of notifiable infectious diseases was again low. Measles
with 781 and whooping cough with 241 provided the largest number
but even these were fewer than in former years. Five cases of
diphtheria were notified but in all cases the diagnosis was not confirmed
on bacteriological examination. As no cases were notified in 1951 it
looks as if for the time being diphtheria has disappeared from our midst
but unless immunization of infants continues to be actively practised
this disease so dangerous to young children may again assert itself.
Fourteen cases of poliomyelitis were notified, three of them in children
of school age. The diagnosis of four was revised on removal to hospital
leaving ten confirmed cases, of which one died. Influenza as such is not
notifiable but influenzal pneumonia and acute primary pneumonia are,
eleven of the latter being notified. Three deaths from influenza were
certified and 53 from pneumonia. The inference is that in 1952 there
was no serious outbreak of influenza. As regards the typhoid fever
group of infections, there were only two cases, both of whom survived.
Notifications of food poisoning cover a wide variety of infections,
particularly as a medical practitioner is entitled to notify " suspected
cases Some of the cases may turn out to be those of sonne dysentery,
an infection likely to spread quickly in schools, day nurseries and rest
centres, where numbers of individuals are living in contact. It is generally
spread through a carrier or a patient who has recovered but is still
carrying the infective germ. Sixty-eight notifications were received
during the year. While not generally giving rise to serious illness it
causes much inconvenience in the conduct of, say, a school or day nursery
and, where the source of infection happens to be a person employed in
the handling of food, the implications are still more troublesome and
far reaching. Other types of food poisoning may be caused by organisms
of the staphylococcal group. The toxins of these germs may develop in
food previously cooked and left to cool slowly. But the food such as a
cooked joint must have been infected in the process of preparation by
someone harbouring this type of germ. The symptoms of the sufferers
resemble those of sea sickness with vomiting, diarrhoea and collapse
within a few hours after the meal. Other types of food poisoning are less
sudden in onset, symptoms appearing about 24 hours after eating the
infected food. They are generally caused by germs of intestinal type called
" Salmonella " and may be conveyed through human agency or by