London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1909
Report on the vital statistics and sanitary work for the year 1909
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28
TUBERCULOUS DISEASES.
TABLE 21. New Cases of Consumption. 1909.
| Dispensary. | Poor Law. | Other Medical Sources. | Lay Reports. | Totals. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Definite." (D) | "Suspect." (S) | |||||
| Total Cases Certified | 248 | 245 | 176 | 31 | 72 | 772 |
| Survivors—1908 | 42 | 4 | 34 | 3 | 3 | |
| Dispensary—D | 16 | 8 | 11 | |||
| „ — S | 8 | 1 | 11 | |||
| Poor Law | — | 3 | ||||
| Other Medical | - | |||||
| Total New Cases | 206 | 241 | 118 | 19 | 44 | 628 |
| Died during 1909 | 20 | 1 | 38 | 1 | 5 | 65 |
| Phthisis | 13 | 1 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 53 |
| Other causes | 7 | — | 2 | - | 3 | 12 |
| Lost by removal, &c. | 2 | - | 26 | 1 | 3 | 32 |
| Diagnosis reviewed | - | - | - | - | 4 | 4 |
| Survivors, 1909 | 184 | 240 | 54 | 17 | 32 | 527 |
The certificates received from the Poor Law Service numbered 319 relating to 176
patients, 34 of whom had been eported prior to 1909 ("survivors"), and 24 were included in
the Dispensary lists.
From Other Medical Sources 31 certificates were received relating to the same number of
patients, of whom 19 only were new; and the Lay Reports numbered 72 yielding 44 new cases.
The total number of patients covered by the certificates and reports was 772, of whom
628 were not previously known to the Department, 343 of the cases being "definite" and
285 "suspect"—the lay reported cases ranking in that category.
The new cases have been distributed according to sex and ages of the patients in
Table 22, while the occupations of all cases known during the year are to be found
in Table 23.
The deaths among the new cases (Table 21) numbered 65, 53* being due to pulmonary
tuberculosis and 12 to other causes. Thirty-two (32) patients were lost sight of before the
close of the year, while in 4 cases the original opinion (not supported by medical certificate)
was varied, and such cases were consequently set aside. The number of new patients
remaining on the record at the close of the year was 527, to which must be added the 130
patients reported prior to 1909 and still alive, giving a grand total of 657 cases on record at
the end of 1909 and carried forward—313 having been definitely certified as cases of
pulmonary tuberculosis and 344 being, as regards all except 32, certified as suspected of
being cases of that disease.
* Of the 53 deaths due to pulmonary tuberculosis, 6 occurred in patients classed as "suspects." It may be
taken as certain that the majority of the "suspects" are suffering from consumption.