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96
1. That a Tuberculosis Dispensary is a very sincere effort
to deal with Consumption in the best manner known
to medical science and modern reasoning.
2. That there is great scope for such an institution in
Deptford.
3. That it is to the best interests of the Borough that we
should have an institution of our own.
4. That, in view of the new Tuberculosis Order, 1912,
making the notification of all cases of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis compulsory, and a recent Order of the
Local Government Board authorising Municipal Dispensaries,
it is advisable that this Council should
provide its own Dispensary, especially as your Medical
Officer of Health may be prohibited from divulging the
names of persons suffering from this complaint to any
voluntary agency.
In arriving at our conclusions, we have taken into consideration
the fact that Dispensaries are not a new or untried
undertaking, inasmuch as they have been instituted in Great
Britain as long ago as 1887. Since that time there has been a
marked falling off in the mortality from consumption in every
town engaged in this kind of treatment.
Now this method of attacking consumption has become
a world-wide movement, for not only is this system carried on
in many of the countries of Europe, hut in America, with
beneficial results.
By the Dispensary System we can place treatment within
the reach of every consumptive, and its final claim is the total
eradication of the disease during the present century. Such an outlook
places it in the first rank of social and philanthropic
efforts.