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117
the supply of milk and meat; bacteriological examination of
the sputa in suspicious or doubtful cases, and provision of
sanatoria for the isolation and treatment of the sick, under
the Public Health Acts, which enable the sanitary authority to
provide hospitals for the inhabitants of their district.
Reduction in Mortality from Consumption, &c.
Speaking generally, it may be said that every advance in
sanitation—every measure tending to remove or diminish the
causes of unhealthiness, especially by improvement in the
housing of the people, and abatement of overcrowding (the
most deadly of nuisances), and every advance in general
prosperity, which enables the poorer classes to feed and clothe
better, and to live happier and more wholesome lives,—conduces
to the attainment of the object of the National Association.
Already much has been done to bring about this happy
consummation; for, as stated at the Marlborough House
meeting, the mortality from tuberculosis has undergone reduction
to the extent of one-half during the last fifty years.
But much remains to be accomplished; for, even now, tuberculosis
in its various forms is the cause of some 60,000 deaths
annually in England and Wales alone, including 40,000 from
consumption. In this parish, inquiry made last year showed
a considerable reduction in the mortality from tubercular
diseases since 1873, the deaths in successive quinquennial
periods having been—2,089 in 1873-77; 2329 in 1878-82
2,112 in 1883-87: 1,725 in 1888-92, and only 1,651 in 189397,
without correction for increase in population. Subject to
such correction, the diminution in the number of deaths during
the five years 1893-97, as compared with 1873-77, was 838, or
about one-third. A numerical statement of the deaths during
this period of 25 years, from the various forms of tuberculosis,
and the wasting diseases of children, is set out in the table at
page 128, which indicates a marked reduction in the mortality
from the varieties of the disease, already alluded to as peculiar