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must form an integral part of the campaign against tuberculosis,
and have powers to enforce their opinions on Local Authorities, it
does not seem a wise policy.
The subject has been so often debated that it seems useless to
carry the discussion any further, and one can only repeat the view
so often expressed : if it be enjoined that a Dispensary be provided,
the cheapest and most effective plan is to come to some terms with
an institution which is in going order and which has outside means
of subsistence in addition to the local rates.
The notifications of the other forms of tuberculosis increased
from 239 to 286 on Form A, and from 5 to 21 on Form B, but these
must not be interpreted in the way of presuming an increased
prevalence, but rather that with the greatly increased attention
devoted to possible early cases, and the many agencies for securing
treatment, more cases are brought to the notice of the doctor.
The increase is most shown in the age periods 1-15.
The number of primary notifications of tuberculosis in all its
forms on Forms A and B rose from 832 in 1914 to 1,038 in 1915, of
these, 731 were of the pulmonary form, an increase of 34 on
the previous year. That all who are suffering from the disease are
notified is not the case, for we have even been asked to arrange for
the removal of a case when no notification had been sent in, and
further, deaths have been registered as from this disease in the case of
persons who have never been notified. Their number, however, in all
probability is not a large one, for the fatal cases are comparatively
few, and it is likely in the future to be confined to those where there is
real ignorance of the nature of the disease on the part of the patient.
The fear of official inspection will gradually wear away as it becomes
increasingly realised both by doctors and patients that a request not
to visit the home of a consumptive is practically always respected.
It would only be ignored after careful consideration and a communication
with the doctor concerned.
The difficulty continues of finding persons at home when a call
is made, and the still greater objection that is so often observed to
questions being asked. In fact, it does seem as if people as a whole
resented the constant inquiries that are made about one thing or
another, and it often needs considerable tact and patience to draw
out the facts one is in search of. And even when they are so
elicited one can never feel sure that entirely truthful answers have
been given.
The number of those who are or who have been receiving treatment
at a sanatorium is a steadily increasing one, although a long
period sometimes elapses between the sending in of the application
and the admission of the patient. One case, however, was considered
as unsuitable on account of the applicant having been a
heavy drinker; a somewhat curious decision, as one would have
thought this to be pre-eminently a case where the regular discipline
of the sanatorium might be followed by an improvement in the
physical and moral state. Besides, it seems somewhat hard that