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have never felt sufficiently ill to realise that anything
serious is wrong till increasing disability, or some more
dramatic symptom, such as haemorrhage, suddenly
awakens them to the need for consulting a doctor. The
only way to track down early cases would, in my
opinion, be by systematic and periodical examination
of those in susceptible age periods, but the advisability
of making this compulsory opens up a controversial
topic into which it is undesirable to enter here.
The Tuberculosis Care Committee.—The economic
state of the country and the unhappy position of the
labour market continue to render this branch of the
work more difficult than it would be in more prosperous
times. As their name implies, Care Committees
in the most general sense are concerned with the social
welfare both of the patients and of their dependents,
and with the amelioration of any special home circumstances
which may tend to nullify the value of
medical treatment. It would serve no useful purpose
to give once more in detail the duties which this Committee
undertake, as their scope is extremely wide and
can be better appreciated by a perusal of some illustrative
cases which are appended by Miss Sargent, the
Secretary to the Committee, and which give more
clearly an idea of the difficulties encountered and of
the good work done. It may be mentioned, however,
that the members during recent years have been perturbed
by the difficulty of securing employment for
partially disabled tuberculous persons, and a considerable
amount of time has been devoted to the discussion
of this problem. An investigation into the local conditions
existing in the Borough, and into the failure
of employment schemes originated elsewhere, produced
convincing proof of the undesirability of endeavouring
to establish a special workshop for those of our patients
who could not be received into their previous occupations.
It was therefore decided that the best plan
would be to make an effort to solicit the interest of
local employers, and with the idea of the furtherance
of this object, it was proposed in May last to ask the
Mayor to receive informally a small deputation from