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246
tence of a capable intelligence department in the shape of a
notification system.
Notwithstanding this drawback, it is satisfactory to note that
there has been a decline in the mortality from the disease in
Battersea during the past few years. This is the more satisfacfactory
when it is remembered that the population of the Borough
has increased during this period. For example, taking the seven
years 1901-7, the average number of total deaths per annum from
Tuberculosis (all forms) was 367; in 1905 the figure was 323; in
1906, 308; and in 1907, 304, or 17.6 per cent. less than the
average for the seven years. Again taking the decennial period
1892-1901, I find that the average death rate from Tuberculosis
is 8.2 per cent. more than the average for the decennium 1898-
1907.
These satisfactory results have been brought about by improved
methods of Sanitary administration in the direction of
house-to-house inspections, cleansing of houses, improved drainage
and a more rigid supervision of the food supply, and such special
measures, as visits by the Lady Inspectors, in the small number
of cases voluntarily notified, to the homes of persons who are
suffering from the disease, for the purpose of giving advice as to
precautions to be taken by the patients and their friends to prevent
the spread of infection. That there remains much more to be
done will be apparent when the deaths in the Borough from the
principal zymotic diseases is compared with the deaths from Tuberculosis.
For example, the average number of deaths from the
principal zymotic diseases (i.e., Small-pox, Measles, Erysipelas,
Scarlet fever, Diphtheria, Enteric fever, Puerperal fever, Whooping-cough
and Epidemic Diarrhoea) for the ten years 1897-1906
was 414 per annum, while the average number of deaths from
Tuberculosis during the seven years 1901-1907 was 367 per annum,
and in 1907 the total number of deaths from Tuberculosis exceeded
the total number of deaths from the principal zymotic diseases
by 49.
Recently a system of limited voluntary notification has been
arranged by the London County Council with the Brompton