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50
Judging from the deaths from Consumption, which numbered 50,
there must have been, at least, some 200 sufferers from the disease in
the Borough during the year, and of those only 39 were notified under
the voluntary system and the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations
of 1908, combined.
The compulsory notification of Consumption has been adopted
for a limited period in the City of Glasgow and it will be useful to
compare the experience of this City with that of Sheffield and Bolton.
While the voluntary notification of the disease has proved a failure,
generally speaking, it has enabled a limited amount of good to be
performed by the Sanitary Authority; and it has impressed upon all
those who> have thus been brought in contact with many cases of this
disease among the poorer people, two outstanding matters demanding
remedial efforts. In the first place the large proportion of those
who come under administrative control are suffering from the disease
in too advanced a stage, and our administrative machinery should be
so devised that cases are early discovered and persons may be
encouraged to seek medical advice and other help at the earliest
possible moment when they are affected or threatened with the disease.
The second matter is the necessity for increased provision for suitable
treatment of the disease; when earlier and more suitable cases can
be drafted into sanatoria for the poorer people far better results
will be obtained from these institutions. With really early and
suitable cases the chances of restoration to work for many years
become very good.
As I have so frequently pointed out in previous reports, the
clamant need for the isolation of the advanced cases of this disease
amongst poor people was demonstrated in many cases which were
notified in Stoke Newington during last year. Although the Workhouse
Infirmary plays an important part in providing isolation of this
sort, it, of course, only partially meets the needs. At the present
time, in the great majority of cases, we find it impossible to get
advanced sufferers from surroundings which are bad for themselves
and highly dangerous to their families. There are no Institutions