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These rates are calculated per 100,000 inhabitants, and corrected by
the last census.
Of the 183 persons who died, 144 had been notified during life.
There remain 39 deaths of persons whose illness did not come to the
knowledge of the Public Health Department. The deaths of 40 homeless
or common lodging-house inmates are included.
Sixty of the deaths occurred at home, 31 in hospitals, 84 in
infirmaries, 5 in asylums, 2 in sanatoriums, and 1 in prison.
There has been a decrease in recent years in the number of deaths
from tuberculosis affecting other parts of the body than the lungs,
probably due to the steps which have been taken to prevent tuberculous
milk coming into London, but without bacteriological examination
in each case it is impossible to say how much tuberculosis is due to
bovine and how much to human infection. Recent investigations* have
shown that about 80 per cent. of the tuberculosis of bones and joints
in children under 3 is due to infection by the bovine bacillus, between
that age and 12 years the proportion is less—about 50 per cent. In
21 instances in 70 investigated there was a definite history of pulmonary
tuberculosis having occurred in some member of the family in which
they lived, and in 50 per cent, of these cases the child was actually
living in contact with a consumptive. Out of these 21 cases, 15 were
due to the bacillus of human tuberculosis, whereas in 52 cases in which
it was definitely stated that there was no family history of tubercle,
43 were bovine in origin. Investigations on similar lines are required
to decide the relative degree of infection in forms of the disease other
than that of bones and joints. With the notification of all manifestations
of tubercle, opportunity will be afforded of ascertaining the extent
to which tubercle infection occurs especially in those forms—such as
* Royal College of Physicians' Laboratory, Edinburgh, Dr. John Fraser.