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Eighty patients were born in London, 21 in other English cities
and 28 in rural England.
Privation and mental anxiety are two potent factors in the
aetiology of tuberculosis. It is not surprising, therefore, that refugees
from Spain and Central Europe are numbered amongst the Dispensary
patients. At least two English people, who had worked for many
years in Spain—during the past two years under very trying conditions
with an unsuitable and inadequate diet—returned to Hampstead
suffering from Tuberculosis.
Refugees and Immigrants.
Tuberculosis is relatively uncommon among the Jewish Race. The
rather large number of Jews on the Register is partly made up of
Central European refugees. Indeed, it is a fortunate circumstance
that they have such a high natural resistance to tuberculosis, for the
conditions of living and worry which they have been, and continue to
be, subjected to in Central Europe, would otherwise inevitably bring
about an enormous increase in its incidence. Despite this natural
resistance, that the disease will become very much more prevalent
amongst them seems to be a distinct possibility and it is not unlikely
that it will reflect itself on the health of those on whom responsibility
for it lies. Physical culture displays and military parades are but a
poor mask for that malnutrition which cannot fail to be present in any
nation whose expenditure on suitable food must be curtailed. The
sharp rise in the tuberculosis death-rate which occurred throughout
Europe during and immediately after the War, is a sufficient proof of
the close association of privation and mulnutrition, and tuberculosis.
Although the number of Austrian and German refugees who come
to Hampstead suffering from open pulmonary tuberculosis is not at
present very considerable, it appears to be increasing. In some cases
the affected people are temporarily housed in boarding houses or in
flats where they cannot be satisfactorily isolated, and many of them
are, unfortunately, almost destitute, and in urgent need of institutional
treatment. In this country, when the tuberculous patient changes his
address, his notification and medical dossier are transferred to the
Public Health Department at his new place of residence. This valuable
public health measure does not operate in the case of foreign
immigrants. It would appear that due consideration will have to be
given to this question in the near future,