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15
TUBERCULOSIS.

The total " admissions " for the five years were 3,300 to Talbot Road and 698 (3f years)
to St. Mary's. The total numbers certified as tuberculous (pulmonary and non-pulmonary)
were —from Talbot Road, 820, including 354 previously known to the Department and
298 from St. Mary's, of which 117 were already known.
In 1916 the Local Government Board prescribed a half-yearly statistical table to be
returned bv each Dispensary. The first return was for the second quarter of that year—
not the full half-year. Neglecting on this occasion the incomplete figures for 1916, the
following information has been extracted for the two years 1917 and 1918 for the whole
Borough.
The total number of new patients was 1,735, of whom 626 (3(5 1 per cent.) were insured
persons and 1,109 (63'9 per cent.) uninsured adults and children under 16 years of age, of
whom there were 740 (42*6 per cent, of the total number).
Of the 1,735 patients 403 (23*2 per cent) were found to be tuberculous and 417 (24*0 per
cent.) suspected to be so. Of the 23*2 per cent, found to be tuberculous, 15*5 per cent, were
suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and 7*7 per cent, from non-pulmonary.
Among the 626 insured persons 198 (31*6 per cent.) were found to be tuberculous, and
130 (20*7 per cent.) suspected to be so. The percentage of pulmonary cases was 27T and of
non-pulmonary, 4*4. ,
Among the 1,109 uninsured persons, 205 (18*4 per cent.) cases of tuberculosis were
discovered and 287 (25'8 per cent.) of suspected cases. The proportions of the two forms of
the disease were—pulmonary, 8*9 per cent, and non-pulmonary, 9*5.
The subjoined analysis brings out the following facts :—
(a) That the incidence of tuberculosis (all forms) was a good deal heavier on
insured males than on insured females, and notably so, in both sexes, on the
insured as compared with the uninsured;
(b) That the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis on insured males was more than
that of uninsured, that on uninsured females not quite one-quarter greater than
that on insured females ; and
(c) That whereas the incidence of tuberculosis on children under 16 was 18*6 per
cent, of the cases examined, that on adults (males and females) was 26*6 per
cent. On the other hand while the incidence of non-pulmonary tuberculosis
on children was 13"1 per cent, that on adults was only 3*7.

Note :—The italic figures in parentheses are the percentages.
The average number of attendances of patients during the year at the Dispensaries was
(in round numbers) 9 per patient in 1917 and 10 in 1918, and the frequency of "systematic
physical examination " was in each year one to every 7 attendances.