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3
25, Highbury Place, N.
February, 27, 1903.
Dear Mr. Cufflin,
May I express to you as Chairman of the Sanitary Committee of
the Town Council, my regret that the recent proposal of the
Sanitary Committee to arrange a system for the voluntary notification
of phthisis was not accepted by the Council.
The report of the Medical Officer of Health on the subject was
most earnest and convincing, and was in accordance with the
prevailing views of the medical profession, and the latest teachings
of medical science.
The pitifulness of the action of the Borough Council was much
impressed on my mind at the time by the fact that I was witnessing
daily the lingering death of a fine young man in his prime from consumption,
leaving a widow and child. Both he and his wife willingly
consented to notification. Surely in these days of enlightened State
Medicine it is not too much to expect of a municipality that it shall
do all in its power to save the unaffected and to reduce the number
of cases of a disease so costly and difficult to cure. A system of
voluntary notification would at a small cost powerfully contribute
to this end.
The widows and orphans made by consumption are a fruitful
source of pauperism. Notification would be a wise measure financially
as well as a very benevolent one.
There can be little doubt that the great majority of my medical
neighbours would approve of voluntary notification It would tend
to diminish their income by diminishing the number of cases of
tubercular disease. But this consideration has never hindered
medical men as a body from advocating measures for the prevention
of disease.
Believe me, dear Mr. Cufflin,
Yours very truly,
(,Signed) J. G. GLOVER.
Alderman Cufflin,
Chairman of the Sanitary Committee,
Borough of Islington.