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73
In 123 cases there is a history of father, mother, brother, sister,
husband or wife or child having suffered from phthisis.
In 20 cases the premises occupied by the patient were found
to be in a dirty condition or affected with dampness.

The home of nearly every patient notified was visited during the
year, and where the patient was being treated at home a periodical
visitation was carried out. In the great majority of cases a careful
inquiry was conducted into the history of the case, and the sanitary
condition of the home, and particular attention was devoted to
searching for suspected cases, i.e. members of the family or person
living in the same house, exhibiting signs of ill-health of a suspicious
nature, with a view to urging them to seek early medical
advice. Advice, both written and oral was given to the patient
or his friends and sputum vessels were supplied where indicated.
Particular attention was paid to those districts where owing
to the circumstances of the patients it was most needed. A large
proportion of the cases were notified, it will be noted from the
poorer districts of the Borough. No less than 79 per cent, of the
patients were notified from East and North-West Battersea.
The problem of consumption is intimately bound up with
poverty, insanitary conditions, drink, &c. The decline which
has taken place in recent years in the death-rate from consumption
is doubtless to a large extent, the result of increased attention
devoted to the subject by sanitary authorities. Their efforts to
eradicate the disease have been greatly assisted by recent legislation
and the action of Government Departments. What is still required
in my opinion is a co-ordinate scheme which will be a national
one and by means of which all the agencies for fighting consumption
are linked up and rendered more effective. Signs are not wanting