View report page

139
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
ON
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARIES.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, N.E.
1st March, 1911.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
I have considered your reference on the above subject, and beg
herewith to report thereon.
I understand the wish of the Committee is to obtain information
on the subject of Tuberculosis Dispensaries in regard to—(1) The
work of such institutions. (2) The results obtainable. (3) The
cost of establishing and maintenance.
1. The work of a Tuberculosis Dispensary.
In order to explain to the Committee the work of a Tuberculosis
Dispensary, I cannot do better than give some account of the
Victoria Dispensary for Consumption in Edinburgh, and this I am
able to do through the kindness of Dr. Philip, its founder and present
senior physician, who has courteously replied to my enquires on the
subject. This dispensary was established in the year 1887 by Dr.
Philip, and was the first dispensary of its kind. Since then many
others have been established on the continent, in America, and in
this country, most of them being worked on the same principles
as the Edinburgh institution.
Dr. Philip, in explaining the object of the Victoria Dispensary
for Consumption, states "The scheme rests on the principle that
for the eradication of tuberculosis we must not be content with
treating the consumptive poor who present themselves (with more
or less advanced disease) at the Out-patient Departments of the
Various hospitals. We must search for the cases at home. We must
follow the consumptive patient to his dwelling and inspect it, and