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22
TUBERCULAR DISEASES.

Each case reported is visited by one of the Women Inspectors who gives advice as to the
precautions necessary to prevent the spread of infection, urges the need of proper medical
treatment, reports any insanitary conditions for remedy, and offers disinfection when necessary.
The co-operation of the various philanthropic societies working in the Borough is sought on
behalf of patients requiring assistance in any form, and especially for such as are suitable
cases for sanatorium or hospital treatment. It is believed that the persons brought to the
knowledge of the Department have benefited thereby, but a serious gap exists in the present
regime which the Department is, at present, unable to fill up. An essential factor in the
prevention of consumption is the discovery and safeguarding of incipient cases of the disease.
At present few such cases are discovered by the Department which does not possess the
necessary staff or powers. The establishment in the Borough of a "Tuberculous Dispensary"
(already foreshadowed) with the search of early cases as one of its principal functions would do
much to supply the deficiencies of the system now in force.
Housing.—The conditions of the home life are important factors in the causation of
phthisis, but it is difficult to determine whether in any given case the unsatisfactory surroundings
(qua aggregation of individuals in the home) are the cause, or the result, of the
disease. It is found impossible to trace the histories of the cases far enough back to say
whether the housing arrangements discovered have resulted from the incapacity of the breadwinner
to provide better accommodation or whether such arrangements have been inevitably