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127
of Hackney was converted during the autumn into a Borough
Tuberculosis Care Committee.
Another important undertaking for the treatment of children
is the Stormont House Open-air School, which was opened in September.
The majority of the children come from Hackney, and the
remainder from Bethnal Green and Stoke Newington. At first a
single class of 25 children of either sex was formed, but by the end of
the year a second class of 25 was started. Accommodation is available
for 75 children, and it is expected that the school will soon be full.
The school is brought into close touch with the dispensary, as
Dr. Howell is Medical Officer in charge, and the dispensary nurse
spends one-third of her time at the school, visiting it daily.
At the beginning of the year, when the London County Council
moved the adoption of open-air schools, two types were contemplated—one
such as Stormont House for definitely tubercular
children, the other for delicate children of the so-called pre-tuberculous
type. Many of the children who attend the dispensary
would be suitable for the latter kind of school, and it is to be hoped
that a site for one can be found in the neighbourhood. Such a school
would undoubtedly help considerably as a preventive measure in the
reduction of tuberculosis.
A further preventive measure which is universally acknowledged
to be of very great importance is the establishment of homes for
advanced and for dying cases. At present there is accommodation
in the different sanatoria for the comparatively hopeful cases, but
very little for the large number of advanced ones among the civilian
population. Realising this, the London Insurance Committee are
contemplating the establishment of institutions for this class of case,
the first having been opened at Hendon to accommodate several
hundred patients. Whether these institutions will satisfactorily
solve the question depends rather on their situation. The patient