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In the report for 1897 an abstract was given of the report of the
Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, and during the past year the
question of the prevention of Tuberculosis has attracted much attention,
and with the view of educating the public and arousing their
interest the National Association for the Prevention of Consumption
and other forms of Tuberculosis has been formed.
The importance of the question cannot be over-estimated, as
although the mortality from Phthisis has enormously decreased during
the past 60 years, having fallen from 3,800 per million of the population
in 1838 to 1,300 per million, or one-third of its former mortality,
in 1897, there are still some 60,000 deaths annually in England and
Wales due to Phthisis and other forms of Tuberculosis. The great
decline in the fatality of the disease has been coincident with the great
sanitary improvements of the last half-century, and it is to these,
together with the higher standard of living among the working classes,
better and more abundant food, and the improved dwellings, that the
steady diminution of the disease is due. There is, therefore, evenreason
to hope that this will continue, even without any special
measures of repression, provided that Sanitary Authorities will enforce
the sanitary laws as far as possible, with the view of securing healthy
houses and workshops, the prevention of overcrowding, the prompt
removal of all refuse, the elimination of smoke and noxious vapour
from the atmosphere, and the freedom of milk and other food from the
germs of Tuberculosis, though to ensure the latter there is urgent need
of fresh legislation. Beyond this much can be done by the education
of the public to a knowledge of the danger that arises from the dissemination
of Tuberculous products by phthisical patients, and the
Vestry have now made arrangements for the disinfection of rooms
which have been occupied by those suffering from the disease, but to
effectively bring home the fact that Phthisis is an infectious disease
some modified system of notification is required.
With regard to the cure of the disease, having regard to the fact
that the chances of the recovery of those who are admitted to our
infirmaries are almost hopeless, and that they are a source of danger
to others, Local Authorities should, failing action by the Guardians
in that direction, consider the question of providing sanatoria for the
treatment of phthisical patients; as Section 75 of the Public Health
(London) Act of 1891 gives them power to provide hospitals for the