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49
Few patients suffering from advanced disease can
be sufficiently isolated or efficiently treated in workingclass
homes. The most obvious and sensible method
of preventing infection is to provide a sufficient number
of beds for these cases. The incubation period of
tuberculosis is very variable and the disease may not
declare itself for many years after the original exposure
to infection, so that it is difficult for some people to
realise the risk of living in intimate contact with
advanced cases.
In the course of our lives, we gradually acquire a
certain amount of resistance or immunity to the
disease and frequent exposure is required before this
resistance is broken down. Occasionally, however,
one is forcibly reminded of the danger by the occurrence
of a case of tuberculosis meningitis in a young child
who has not yet acquired even a small amount of
immunity. At school age the disease is generally
mild or latent, but the seeds sown in early life may
cause active disease during adolescence or at a later
age.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospital at Grove
Park, which will accommodate 300 cases in the later
stages of pulmonary tuberculosis, will soon be available,
and this will remedy to a slight extent the scarcity
of beds. The facts that the scheme for boarding out
children was inaugurated in 1925 and that this Hospital
will be opened in 1926, are encouraging, and the proposed
Reform of the Poor Law which will lead to further
developments is another hopeful sign.
X-Ray Examinations.
57 patients were sent to Brompton Hospital for
X-ray examinations during 1925, compared with
23 in 1924.
These examinations are of great assistance in differentiating
tuberculosis from other diseases, such as
Bronchitis, bronchiectasis, catarrhal and pyogenic
infections, fibrosis of the lungs, foreign bodies in the