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Voluntary Notification of Phthisis.—Twelve months have now
elapsed since the City Council adopted a plan of voluntary notification
of pulmonary tuberculosis (phthisis, consumption). The object in doing
so was:—
1. To instruct consumptives and their families, personally and by
hand-bills, in the precautions required to prevent the spread
of infection.
2. To remove or destroy the infection already accumulated, and for
that purpose to determine in each case the precise kind and
amount of disinfection required.
3. To prevent, as far as possible, the future recurrence of
ness in households where individuals are afflicted by pulmonary
tuberculosis.
4. To collect evidence of the accumulation of phthisis when those
necessary precautions are neglected; to gauge the effect of
different classes of occupation, and so to show what further
action is required; and generally to determine under what
conditions the disease is communicated. It is necessary to
collect and sift such materials, so that we may not waste our
efforts, but concentrate on the points of real danger.
5. To ascertain the effect of insanitary conditions, such as
crowding, and as far as possible to remedy them.