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which in the case of the males is 31.2 and in the case of the
females 28.3 years, it seems clear that consumption exerts its most
powerful influence on young lives. Having regard to the fact, too,
that women are longer lived on the average than men, it would
appear that the female sex is specially exposed to this disease.
While it is known that some special trades, e.g., filemakers,
potters, etc., lead to consumption in the workers, an examination
of the foregoing tables for this district cannot lead us to believe
that generally industrial employment, especially in the case of
women, has any large prepondrance in determining consumption.
It would rather appear that the home influences are supreme. It
may also be the case that the woman is the first to contract the
disease in the household and later spreads it to the man—at least
she succumbs to it as a rule at an earlier age than the man.
We also know that as death approaches in this disease and
the sputum becomes more abundant, the infectiousness of the
patient increases. The large number of deaths which occur at
home in this district, make it obvious that certain of these persons
must be a source of great danger to the other members of the
family and perhaps to the neighbourhood. It would be well if the
Council had power in certain cases to isolate dangerous consumptives
as well as to control spitting.
It is also to be noted that any provision made at the Union
Infirmary for pauper cases can exert no practical influence in
lessening the spread of consumption. Only three cases occurred
there during the year and in these cases the age at death was in
all cases several years above the average. This would lead us to
believe that such cases were chronic cases of consumption, who
having suffered from chronic ill-health for a number of years, had
exhausted their resources and been then obliged to become chargeable
to the rates. The fact that, in spite of hard times, these
patients lived longer than the others, holds out reasonable hope
that if provision had been made for their treatment at the early
stage of the disease, they would have been cured at less cost and
less danger to the community than their continued ill-health over
a number of years and ultimate deaths in the Union.