View report page

25
Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908. Excluding a few duplicates,
there were only 16 cases voluntarily notified; 9 belonging to St. Giles and
Bloomsbury and 7 to the Holborn District. The corresponding numbers for
the year 1908 were respectively 152, 61 and 91.
Of the total number 335 notifications received, 240, or 72 per cent. were
residents of common lodging houses, and were all at once or soon afterwards
removed to workhouse infirmaries. With few exceptions the remaining 93 lived
in tenement houses. 77 of these were soon removed to infirmaries or hospitals so
that only 16 remained at home, and some of these had previously been in
sanatoria or infirmaries.
In previous Annual Reports for 1904-5 I gave details as to the action that is
taken and the various results that were obtained from the enquiries made.
I may, however, remind the Council that a printed leaflet on the Prevention
of Consumption, giving instructions for measures to be taken to prevent the
spread of the disease, is left in all cases occurring in tenement houses.
After death, or removal to infirmary or hospital, disinfection is advised.
Consent for this was, however, obtained in only 62 cases.
ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS (HUMAN AND BOVINE).
The Third Interim Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into
the relations of human and animal tuberculosis was published in January,
1909. This further report contains an account of certain experiments which
have been carried out regarding the infectivity of the milk and fæces of
naturally infected tuberculous cows, i.e. cows that had contracted the disease
in the ordinary way. These experiments show that the presence of tubercle
bacilli in the milk of cows, clinically recognisable as tuberculous, confirms the
opinion expressed in the Second Interim Report, that the milk of such cows
must be considered dangerous for human beings. The experiments with
regard to the infectivity of the feces of tuberculous cows were dictated by
knowledge of the fact that dirt of various kinds from cows and the cowshed is
almost constantly present in milk as it reaches the consumer. Cows suffering
from extensive tuberculosis of the lungs must discharge considerable numbers
of bacilli from the air passages in the act of coughing, and some of the bacilli
thus expelled may find their way into the milk. But the experiments indicate
that the excrement of cows obviously suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs
or alimentary canal must be regarded as much more dangerous than the
matter discharged from the mouth or nostrils. It was found that even in
the case of cows with slight tuberculous lesions tubercle bacilli in small
numbers are discharged in the feces, whilst as regards cows clinically tuberculous,
the experiments show that the fæces, contain large numbers of living
and virulent tubercle bacilli.
d