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due to the fact that although the patient's earnings were small they
did keep the home together, and prevented the inevitable break-up
which would follow the removal. This course no doubt delayed but
usually did not prevent the final catastrophe.
It is early in the day to speculate on the effect, whether valuable
or no, of the new Order, but the result of enquiries does warrant the
opinion that the bulk of the people, even of the very poorest, believe
in the infectivity of the disease, and do indeed take the precautions
which are recommended according to their lights and capabilities.
One should therefore, if the prevailing trend of thought in favour of
the person to person infectivity being an important factor in the
prevalence of the disease be the correct one, be seeing a decrease
much more pronounced than the gradual decline which has been
proceeding for so many years and which has been going side by side
with the gradual improvement that has taken place in the circumstances
of housing and food. In making my enquiries the influence
of want was very strongly brought home to me, and it leads one to
the opinion that unless the practical removal of poverty can be
ensured, that those who prophesy the disappearance of phthisis
within a generation will not justify their power of foresight to those
who are to follow in the public health service.
Among male occupations, apart from the general labourer,
which comprises anything, the one on which the incidence was
heaviest was that of carman, probably due to exposure, irregular
food, with its usual accompaniment of regular drink.
Among women, dressmakers seem to have been frequently
attacked, but not a few of those notified are married women who
are occupied solely in looking after their homes and in whose cases
exist none of the generally ascribed causes of this disease.