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Premising that time would be required for giving effect to the recommendations, the
Committee, as regarded action by the Council, advised—
1. (a) The adoption of a system of voluntary notification by medical men of cases of
tion attended with tuberculous expectoration.
(b) Payment to medical men of the customary fee for notification of such cases; and
(c) An arrangement for bacteriological examination of expectoration suspected to be
tuberculous.
2. The further circulation of the leaflet on "The Prevention of Consumption." (See Minutes
of the late Vestry, June 14th, 1899, page 206.)
3. (a) The appointment of an assistant disinfector; and
(b) Disinfection of houses after the occurrence of fatal cases of consumption, and after the
removal of consumptives.
4. An appeal to the Local Government Board to give effect to the opinion of the Conference-
of Poor Law Authorities held in October, 1900. (Vide page 89.)
The report concluded by stating, as "evidence of the importance of the subject, that in
Kensington, consumption alone—apart from all other diseases of the tubercular class—destroys,
year by year, very many more lives than small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and 'fever' combined;"
the fact being that in the three years 1898-1900, the deaths from these diseases had aggregated 183,
whereas the deaths from consumption, in 1900 alone, were 210.
The Committee's report having been unanimously adopted by the Council, November 13th,
1901, a letter was addressed forthwith to the Local Government Board urging the desirability of
steps being taken for giving effect to the resolution of the Conference of Poor Law Authorities, but
nothing more than a formal acknowledgment was received. A scheme for voluntary notification of
Phthisis was adopted, and came into operation on January 1st, 1902. Memoranda on the "Cause and
Prevention of Consumption" and "Precautions for Consumptive Persons," were prepared for the
information and guidance of sufferers; and, together with the Council's leaflet on "The Prevention
of Consumption," the National Association's leaflets on "Ventilation "and" Disinfection," have
since been given to the consumptive person, or the head of the family, in every case visited by the
lady inspectors, to whom this duty was entrusted. Disinfection of rooms, offered always after a
change of residence, or the death, of a consumptive person, has been generally accepted.
[Particulars of an inquiry arising out of the Notification of Consumption in the Borough are
set out in a report by the Lady Inspectors at page 43.]
SANATORIA FOR PERSONS SUFFERING FROM CONSUMPTION.
This subject, which occupied so large a space in my last annual report, continues to engage
public and professional attention in an ever increasing degree. Towards the close of 1902 the
Metropolitan Asylums Board had decided to defer for twelve months the further consideration of
the matter, as it had been brought to their attention by the Council and other Metropolitan Sanitary
and Poor-Law Authorities, under the circumstances set out in my last annual report (page 49).
The matter came up again in November last, on a report by the General Purposes Committee
to the effect that—
"Having given careful consideration to the whole question, and to the representations
made in the several communications which have been addressed to the Managers on the subject,
from time to time, during the past two years," they had "come to the conclusion that
the question of the establishment of sanatoria for consumptive patients is one which calls for
an authoritative expression of opinion on the part of the Local Government Board."
They accordingly recommended the Managers to adopt the following resolution, viz.:—
"That the Managers, having duly considered the question of the proposed establishment
of sanatoria for consumptive patients, and the letters received from the Local Government
Board and the various Metropolitan Local Authorities and Medical Officers of Health in regard
thereto, are of opinion that the matter is one of such vital and far-reaching importance
to the community at large, and the proposal one which, if adopted by the Managers, would
entail so considerable an extension of their duties and responsibilities, and so large an increase
in their expenditure, as to call for some authoritative expression of opinion by the
chief health authority of the country, viz., the Local Government Board, before the Managers
are asked to take any definite action in the matter, or to make any further inquiries in
regard thereto; and that the Local Government Board, the several Boards of Guardians, the
Borough Councils, and the Medical Officers of Health be so informed."