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apply for compulsory notification of the disease in their next Bill.
In 9 of these 31 towns spittoons are supplied free, and in practically
all of them disinfection is carried out in all cases where it
is possible to do so, and literature, visits of Health Visitors
are the other measures in the majority of instances provided.
In some of the larger Cities and Towns the methods of fighting
the disease are carried out on a much more extensive scale and
in a better organised manner. These towns are Sheffield, Bristol,
Manchester, Sunderland, Leicester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Gateshead
and Brighton. A short description of the methods as carried
out in these important centres of population may be of interest
to the Committee.
Sheffield, the centre of the steel trade, is a town with a population
of over 400,000. A large number of persons are engaged
in the knife-grinding industry, which greatly predisposes the
workers to this disease owing to the irritation produced in the
lungs from the inhalation of the fine, sharp particles of dust floating
in the air of these works. In 1903, by a special local Act of
Parliament, the Corporation adopted compulsory notification of
the disease. Two special Inspectors are employed to visit the
homes where cases of consumption are notified. The Inspector
leaves a copy of printed instructions with the relatives or with
the patient, and gives advice as to the ventilation of rooms, and
furnishes the poorer of the patients with pocket spittoons free
of charge (these spittoons cost 57s. per gross nett).
The Inspector, on his first visit, gets all the particulars of
the case, and pays subsequent visits as often as possible. In
all cases where the house is dirty or the patient is much confined
to the house by his illness, the room is disinfected by the Inspector
with a formalin sprayer at the time of his visit, except in the
small number of cases where the patient has no other room to go
to temporarily while the disinfection is being carried out, and for
2 or 3 hours after.
Accommodation is provided by each of the Boards of Guardians
for a certain amount of open-air treatment at the