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130
Brothers or sisters were consumptive in 25 instances,
brothers in 14, sisters in 11, and both in 5.
Special reference may be made to the case of a child aged
3 years, who was notified as suffering from Tuberculosis of the
Peritoneum. The father was consumptive, and the father's
mother and grandmother both died of the disease. Several of
his brothers had also died of Phthisis, and six cousins, living or
dead, had also fallen victims to the disease. Two other young
children in this family were found to be suffering from Consumption.
In another case, of an adult female, the mother, the father,
and three brothers had all died from Consumption; and of her
two children, one had died of the disease and the other was a
sufferer from it.
It was found that the period during which the various
individuals notified had been suffering from the disease varied
considerably; from two or three weeks to as long as fourteen
years in one case. It is impossible to even approximately define
the period in a large number of cases, so insidious is the disease
in its early stages when it is commonly regarded as nothing more
than a cough. Probably 91 patients had suffered from the disease
for less than 12 months, and 51 for over 12 months at the time
when the inquiries were made. In 16 cases the duration of the
disease had exceeded 3 years. Five of the patients had previously
been in Sanatoria.
The most frequent causes of the disease, in the opinion of
the patients themselves, were exposure to dampness, wet and
cold, influenza, repeated colds, pleurisy, pneumonia, and winter
coughs. Contact with a previous case was alleged to have been
the source of infection in 3 cases, and the special circumstances
of 2 cases made this very probable.
The occupations of the persons notified were very various.
Indeed, almost all kinds of employment are entered upon the
inquiry forms; and there is nothing to indicate any special prevalence
of the disease in any particular form of occupation, when
one bears in mind the varying extent to which different occupations
attract the working.class population.