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can do, and, assuming epidemic virulence, it passes over our badly
vaccinated community, the present Metropolitan Asylum Board
provision will probably not hold out for more than a week.
Out of 39,251 cases of infectious disease notified in the
metropolis during 1897, and which were eligible for admission to
the hospitals, 58.5% were actually admitted, a percentage considerably
in excess of that of any previous year. This growing recognition
by the public of the many advantages, both to the patient and to
the rest of the family, accruing from the prompt and complete
isolation of infectious illness is a great gain to preventive medicine.
TUBERCULOSIS.
The tremendous mortality from Tuberculosis amounting to
some 60,000 deaths per annum in England and Wales alone, is
very largely preventable, and attention has been drawn for many
years by those who have studied public health matters, to the
urgent necessity which exists for adopting measures that are
calculated to diminish this appalling waste of health and life
and the misery and expense which it entails.
The subject has come very prominently forward during
the year and a National Association for the Prevention of
Consumption has been started with very extensive and influential
support. The functions of the Association are to disseminate a
knowledge of the fact that the disease may be directly or indirectly
conveyed from individual to individual unless a few simple
precautions are taken ; to support and encourage public authorities
and others to promote all those conditions in dwellings and
workshops which will ensure a sufficiency of fresh and pure
air for the occupiers; and to prevent the sale of milk and meat
containing the germ of the disease.
Consumption (Tuberculosis of the Lungs) slays over 40,000
individuals every year in England and Wales and a very large amount
of the disease is contracted from preceding cases. The expectoration,
especially in the later stages, is loaded with the germs of the
disease and when allowed to dry, whether on floors or handkerchiefs,
it mingles with the dust of the compartment, gets lifted up
into the atmosphere by air currents and may be finally inhaled by