London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1909

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]

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Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
137
of this amounts to about £,500 per annum, and from an
educational and curative point of view, this provision by the
Woolwich Council has proved decidedly satisfactory.
" To sum up : the measures carried out at present in
this Borough are
" (1.) Notification.
" (2.) Visiting cases and exercising a certain amount of
supervision over those treated at home.
" (3.) Disinfection and cleansing of premises after death
or removal.
" The other measures which might be taken are
(1.) The provision of spit bottles and paper handkerchiefs.
" (2.) The establishment of a dispensary for Tuberculosis.
"(3.) The provision of a certain number of beds at a
sanatorium for cases at an early stage of the disease.
" (4.) The institutional treatment of advanced cases so
as to prevent infection of the healthy.
" Financial Aspect of the Subject.
" Dr. Newsholme, in his book on the prevention of
Tuberculosis, has collated statistics on this subject, and calculated
that by the experience of England and Wales in the
years 1891-1900, nearly 10 millions sterling would be saved
by the total abolition of Consumption in men, making no
allowance for the loss sustained by sickness, nor from the
premature death of women from this disease.
" It is also slated that one-eleventh of the total cost
incurred by the relief of pauperism in England and Wales is
caused by Consumption, the amount annually spent on
paupers who were made such by Consumption being over
one million pounds.