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71
As in previous years, only lack of accommodation prevents
many more cases being sent. No adults were recommended.
The number of treatments totalled 2,242, an average of
15:9 per patient, and the procedure adopted remains the same
as last year. In view of the anticipated removal of the Clinic
to Royal Hill, no alterations were made with regard to equipment
or apparatus.
Recently some criticism about the value of this form of
treatment have appeared in the Press, but whatever doubt there
may be about the value of Ultra Violet Ray from the scientific
point of view, there is no doubt at all about its clinical value.
Of course, it is always possible to say that the patients might
have improved without this form of treatment, but the fact
remains that previous to its introduction patients of similar class
and suffering from similar conditions did not show the same
improvement in the same time nor in the same degree as those
exposed to artificial sunlight; and judging from our own
experience we have every reason to continue the treatment with
confidence, provided always that due care is exercised in the
selection of cases. This care we have endeavoured to exercise
and certainly so far we have no unsatisfactory results to tabulate.
The most notable improvement has been in the pretubercular
or border line children; not that there has been
any marked increase in weight, etc., but simply that the children
seem healthier and brighter, whilst their nutrition has improved,
all points which the patients have voluntarily remarked upon.
Incidentally, it is interesting to note that daring a severe
epidemic of measles during the winter, only 7 out of 70 children
of this "delicate" class contracted the disease, although the
degree of absenteeism from measles in the schools in the district
varied from 15 to 20 per cent.
Two cases of pleurisy with effusion, in which the effusion
persisted for a considerable time, gradually cleaned up following
exposure to Ultra Violet Ray.
The gland cases, mostly cervical, all did well, although
the enlargement did not entirely disappear.
No cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis were treated.
Occupation.—There are no industries in the Borough
which have any special bearing upon the Incidence of Tuberculosis,
and the occupations of notified cases in 1928 show no
marked difference to those quoted in previous Reports.