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44
PREVENTIVE MEASURES.
Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations.
The passing into law of the National Insurance Act has given
rise to an enormous advance in the methods which have heretofore
been carried on for fighting tuberculosis. Much good work has
been accomplished by sanitary authorities, especially during the
past two years, to check the ravages of this scourge of the human
race, which is responsible for so much of the misery and destitution
prevailing in large centres of population. The problem of tuberculosis
is, however, a national one, and requires to be dealt with
as such on broad general principles which should be uniform and
co-ordinated for the whole country. This fact has been recognised
by Parliament, and the National Insurance Act in its "Sanatorium
Benefit "provisions has provided means by which this can be
developed.
With the object of organising a national and comprehensive
scheme by means of which tuberculosis in all its forms can be
eradicated, a departmental committee was appointed by the
Government, and in due course a report was presented which has
been received with general approval.
In the introduction to this report, the Committee state that
" in order that the field of enquiry by the Committee may properly
be appreciated it is necessary to indicate briefly a few general
aspects of the problem with which the Committee is called upon to
deal. The facts as to the prevalence of tuberculosis in the United
Kingdom, the mortality due to the disease, and the general and
economic waste which it causes have become so far matters of
common knowledge that it would be out of place in a report of
this nature to furnish statistics. It is sufficient to say that the
disease has a wide prevalence and that a large proportion of the
population has, at some time or other, developed tuberculosis
although it may have remained latent or unrecognised. The
seeds of the disease have been present and in many cases the dose
of infective material has been too small to produce active disease,
or the resisting power of the body into which they have been
introduced has been sufficient to protect it from a well-defined
attack. The problem of the prevention and treatment of the disease
presents therefore two aspects, that of the seed of the disease, and
that of the soil in which the seed may be planted."
"With regard to the seed of the disease it is now generally
accepted that both the human and the bovine types of the bacillus
of tuberculosis are capable of giving rise to the disease in human
beings. The question whether the introduction of these bacilli