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view of public health, had it not been that neighbouring
districts are now beginning to co-ordinate their work and
to send on particulars of patients who remove to other
districts to the Medical Officers concerned.
The results of treatment (vide infra) have reference
only to patients whose lengths of attendance were one
month and over.
The different sources from which the patients were
drawn are set out in Table III., from which it will be
noted that the Scheme is receiving support in a way, and
to an extent, that must tend to make it a success. Medical
men and the public are taking an interest in the Scheme.
The results of diagnosis are given in Table III., shewing
that, of the total 1,036 patients examined, 486 proved
to be tuberculous and 550 suspected tuberculous, including
"non-tuberculous" and "doubtful" cases. Of the total
1,036 patients examined, 306 were "contacts" and. of
these 306 "contacts," 46 proved to be tuberculous and
260 suspected tuberculous. Further, of the 486 cases
diagnosed as tuberculous, 470 were pulmonary and 16
non-pulmonary, and 251 (i.e., 51.6 per cent.), gave a
tuberculous family history, shewing the susceptibility of
certain families and the direct infectivity of the disease.
All tuberculous patients, attending the Dispensaries,
are notified to the Medical Officer of Health as a routine,
whether or not previously notified by medical practitioners.
The most powerful weapon in the fight against tuberculosis
is early diagnosis. There is, at present, no specific
diagnostic for every case. Patients are diagnosed on
weight of evidence for or against and, in this connection,
special and all methods of diagnosis are of value. It is now
acknowledged that it is necessary to use all such methods
of diagnosis, and not to trust to physical signs alone. The
stethoscope, or the interpretation of what it conveys, is
no longer considered to be infallible in the diagnosis of
pulmonary tuberculosis.
The special methods of diagnosis may be tabulated
as (1) Bacteriological, (2) X-rays, and (3) Tuberculin.
(1) Bacteriological.
A large number of routine bacteriological examination
of sputa has been carried out, and it has been