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from the treatment centres showed that as regards syphilis in approximately 53 per
cent, of the new patients, and in the case of gonorrhoea in 86 per cent., the infection
had taken place within a year.
Importance is attached to the necessity of securing the regular attendance of
patients at the clinics, more especially in the case of gonorrhoea, and efforts to secure
the requisite provision of facilities for intermediate treatment at times other than
during the hours when the medical officer attends are meeting with considerable
success. A number of patients still fail to complete the full course of treatment
considered necessary before final discharge, due in no small measure to the false
impression that a cure has been effected on the disappearance of outward signs of
the disease. The need for improving conditions likely to cause patients to discontinue
attendance at the clinics or to transfer them from one clinic to another continues to
receive careful attention.
Ratio of
attendances.
In past years the ratio of attendances has been stated as so many attendances
to each new case of V.D. admitted to the clinics during the year. By this means
an estimate, comparable year by year, is obtained of the efficiency of the work as
measured by the continued attendance. For the year 1930, the total attendances of
V.D. patients was 772,816 and the ratio of attendances of Y.D. patients to new
V.D. cases was 46, compared with 44 in 1929 and 43 in 1928.

Attention is also drawn to the very large number of non-venereal patients who
present themselves for examination. This appears to indicate quite clearly that the
general public is appreciating more and more the efforts which have been, and are
being, made to spread far and wide a knowledge of the serious nature and grave
after-effects of the venereal diseases.
Pathology
Eind
bacteriology.