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24
VOLUNTARY NOTIFICATION OF CONSUMPTION.
The Voluntary Notification of Consumption, which was in the first instance
put into force for a period of 12 months from the 1st January, 1904, the fees to
be paid being the same as for the notifiable diseases, was extended to the year
1905, further extended for the three years 1906-08, and has since been still further
extended for the three years 1909-11 inclusive.
Excluding a few duplicates there were 152 cases notified, 61 belonging to
St. Giles and Bloomsbury and 91 to the Holborn District. The corresponding
numbers for the year 1907 were respectively 171, 74 and 97.
Of the 152 cases notified, 85 or 57 per cent., had been living in common
lodging houses, and these were all, at once or soon afterwards, removed to
infirmaries. With a few exceptions the remaining 67 lived in tenement houses,
and 55 of them were soon removed to infirmaries or hospitals, so that only 12
remained at home.
In previous Annual Reports for 1904-5 I gave details as to the action that is
taken and the various results that were obtained from the enquiries made, and I
think it is now unnecessary to repeat these.
I may, however, remind the Council that a printed leaflet on the Prevention
of Consumption giving instructions for measures to be taken to
prevent the spread of the disease is left in all cases occurring in tenement
houses.
After death, or removal to infirmary or hospital, disinfection is advised;
consent for this was, however, obtained in only 70 cases.
PUBLIC HEALTH (TUBERCULOSIS) REGULATIONS, 1908.
On the 18th December, 1908, the Local Government Board with a view to
affording facilities for the extension of administrative action for the prevention
of tuberculosis, issued an order in pursuance of section 130 of the Public
Health Act, 1875, as amended and extended by the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, and the Public Health Act, 1896, to provide for the notification to
Medical Officers of Health of Sanitary Authorities of cases of pulmonary
tuberculosis occurring amongst the inmates of Poor Law Institutions or
amongst persons under the care of District Medical Officers, and for the taking
of certain measures in such cases.
ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS (HUMAN AND BOVINE).
The Third Interim Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire
into the relations of human and animal tuberculosis was published in January,