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3. In each home, there was only one bed. In each household
the family could not afford to rent a second room. In one
tenement there was no space to accommodate another bed. In
the others the. provision of second beds by voluntary agencies
would be of great value. The loan of shelters or of hammocks
to be used for open air treatment on the "leads" or in back
gardens would be most helpful in all three cases, and, combined
with the tuberculin treatment at a Dispensary, would apparently
constitute the best practical means of dealing with them.
The advantage of the tuberculin treatment is that the patient,
while undergoing it, is enabled to continue at his work, and thus
not to become a charge upon the poor rates.
The Tenements.—Out of the whole number, excluding common
lodging houses, 105 were one-roomed tenements, that is to say,
in these tenements the patient and family lived and slept in one
room only, 156 were two-roomed tenements—the rest had three
to eight rooms.
Forty-five tenements were overcrowded.
It is difficult to conceive a condition which favours the spread
of infection more than overcrowding. In phthisical families the
abatement of overcrowding is insisted upon forthwith.
Ninety-nine tenements had only one cupboard each for food,
clothes and coke. Eight had no cupboard accommodation at all.
These are very unsatisfactory conditions for a phthisical household.
When the household utensils of the patient are kept in the
same cupboard as the other household utensils, when his clothes
are hung on the common peg, when he uses the common towel and
washing basin, the common knives, forks, spoons, cups saucers
and glasses, when the utensils of the household are all washed
together indiscriminately, the spread of infection from the patient
to his family is greatly favoured.