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therefore only by getting into touch with other agencies that the
appropriate help can be obtained; and this again entails a great
amount of correspondence on the part of the secretary of the committee,
and close co-operation with the Tuberculosis Officers, the
Public Health Departments of the boroughs, and the Health Visitors.
There can, in my opinion, be no doubt but that the immediate
results of sanatorium treatment are in the main satisfactory, while it
must be conceded that subsequent relapses are unhappily quite
common, and it is in the prevention of these that after-care has its
special functions. It is, at the present time, not possible to say that
measures taken on the social side have kept pace with the improvements
in diagnosis and treatment, but very considerable progress
has been made, and each year shows some advance.
The housing question has come to the forefront, and the large
blocks of buildings erected in Hackney and Stoke Newington by the
Borough Councils and the L.C.C. afford comfortable and adequate
accommodation. All the same, there are distinct drawbacks to life
in flats, such as noise caused by children playing in courtyards, by
the inconsiderate use of wireless sets, and by persons coming home
late at night or going out to work early in the morning. All these,
though they do not obtain universally, may make peaceful sleep and
rest difficult for invalids, but with the vast increase in the size of
London's population it is hard to see how the space could be obtained
for the building of a sufficient number of small houses to meet the
present need. Also, quite apart from the question of health, it may
be doubted whether the aggregation of large numbers of people
under such circumstances is really desirable, leading as it does to a
stereotyped standardisation of interests, and to a diminution of
individual initiative, and possibly eventually to a less healthy sense
of citizenship and its responsibilities.
The provision of adequate food for the tuberculous is secured
mainly through three sources:
(1) Through the Public Assistance Committee if the patient is
unfit for work.
(2) Through the Unemployment Assistance Board if he is fit
for work but unemployed.
(3) In certain cases by a grant from the Borough Councils.
This grant is really in the nature of medical treatment rather
than relief. It is limited by the Ministry of Health to an amount
representing £2 per 1,000 of the population and is, generally speaking,
intended only for those people who are up and about, and who have
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