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129
PHTHISIS (CONSUMPTION) AND OTHER FORMS OF
TUBERCULOSIS.
All the ascertainable facts seem to justify the conclusion
that a widespread infection of Tuberculosis takes place in infancy
and early childhood, when the infection while partly of bovine
origin is generally derived from human sources. The conclusion
also appears to be warranted that the direct communication of
the disease from a sufferer to a healthy individual rarely, if ever,
occurs in adult life, under good sanitary conditions, except maybe
where the contact has been very close and prolonged. Again,
there can be little doubt that the wide prevalence of the disease
has resulted in an increased resistance to its attack in the population
generally, and that the fall in the death-rate from the
disease is not only due to improved hygienic conditions, but also
to this increased resistance. The mode of attack which promises
the best measure of success is that which seeks to raise the
sanitary standard of living.
142 cases of Consumption were notified under the Public
Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1912.
A few facts may be worthy of record in connection with the
cases notified during the year. There was certainly no family
history of Consumption in 79 of the cases investigated; and it
seems probable that the history was negative in some other
instances. There were, therefore, about 56 per cent. of the total
cases notified whose family history furnished no instance of the
disease. The parental history was often in other cases suggestive
of Phthisis, although one was informed that the death of the
father or mother was attributed to Bronchitis or some other
Pulmonary complaint. Excluding such doubtful cases of parental
history of the disease, it was found that in 26 cases the father
or mother (and in two cases both) had either died, or were
suffering from Consumption at the time of the inquiry; and that
in 12 other cases there was a history of Consumption in the
brothers or sisters of the parents. Where the parent's themselves
had either died or were living and suffering from the disease, in
17 cases it was the father, in 9 cases the mother, and in 2 cases
both parents, who were consumptive.