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a good prospect of eventually becoming fit for work. Unlike the
first two types mentioned, it is in the main a temporary measure,
designed to tide the patient over a period of emergency, and to
raise his standard of living to the proper subsistence level.
Thanks to the co-operation of the Relieving Officers, the Area
Officers of the Unemployment Assistance Board, and the officials
of the Public Health Departments, all these schemes are working
smoothly, and the cases of great hardship that one used to see are
fortunately becoming very much fewer.
However, the anxiety as to their future earning capacity is still
one of the greatest burdens which the tuberculous have to bear,
since there are very few who are not eager to return to some form of
work as soon as possible, and to become independent of assistance
received from outside sources.
As in previous years, we have received much willing help from
such bodies as the Charity Organisation Society, the Invalid
Children's Aid Association, the British Legion, the Soldiers and
Sailors' Families Association, and the United Services Fund.
The Handicrafts Class has had a most successful year, and the
money necessary for the payment of the instructress and the provision
of material has been raised mainly through the efforts of
Miss K. H. Russell, the Secretary, who has again organised sales of
the articles made, which have rendered the class self supporting.
The prevention of tuberculosis in children is a matter that
nowadays engages particular attention, but the obstacles encountered
in the efforts to solve this many-sided problem are
numerous. The segregation of infectious adults throughout the
duration of their illness is not at present feasible, and therefore it is
necessary to adopt as widely as possible measures which will raise
the resistance of the child. One of the best ways of doing this is the
system of open air school teaching, and it would be a considerable
step forward if the provision of such schools for delicate, but not
necessarily tuberculous children, could be widely extended. For
those children already affected, but not suffering from severe forms
of the disease, Stormont House School continues to provide a
combination of excellent instruction with careful medical and
nursing supervision. All who have had the opportunity of visiting
this school can bear witness to the results achieved there, results
which are just as noteworthy on the scholastic as on the medical side.
I am glad again to have the opportunity of thanking the Honorary
Staff of the Metropolitan Hospital for kindly seeing cases that I
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