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In the second type—the parent with phthisis—the father, is
in the infirmary, and is contemplating taking his discharge against
medical advice, and to the consternation of the mother, who has
obtained employment as a domestic servant, a charwoman or a
bookfolder. The children are put by day in a crèche or in the
care of a neighbour. The family live in one room. The mother's
earnings are just enough for her and the children. If the father
insists on leaving the infirmary, the mother's earnings are insufficient
to maintain him, and the prospect is a very distressing one.
In all probability it means that if the father is discharged at his
own request, the whole family in a short time will have to go
into the workhouse.
In such straits, the mother generally writes to the Public
Health Department, asking that the father shall be compelled to
remain in the infirmary. Unfortunately, in London, there is no
power which enables a local authority to accede to the mother's
request. Compulsory removal and detention for phthisis
are available by a private Act in the Borough of St. Helens,
Lancashire, but in no other English town as far as is known.
Many letters of this kind are received every year by the Finsbury
Public Health Department.
In the third type—a child generally of school age, is notified
to have phthisis. The parents keep the child home to do most
of the household work or send it hawking vegetables on the
streets. They refuse to believe that the child is ill—or, at all
events, make a statement to that effect.
The child's condition gets worse.
Arrangements are made to send the child to a sanatorium or
to a country convalescent home. At the last minute the parents
withdraw their consent—"Anybody can see there ain't nothing
the matter with her, it's only a fancy illness." Repeated visits
are paid to exhort the parents to realize the serious condition of
the child and to rouse them to a sense of parental responsibility
and effort. Fresh arrangements are made for the child to get
into the country, and rendered fruitless by the discovery a day or
two before the appointed time that the child "ain't got no boots."