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47
were probably placed in favourable circumstances to fight the
disease, and were able to resume their ordinary occupations.
If persons suffering from Consumption could undergo treatment
in the earliest stages, the majority of them could probably
resume their ordinary occupations. Under present conditions,
patients relapse after a three or four months sojurn in a
Sanatorium for want of a suitable employment. It is easy to
say that an attempt must be made to wean them from the
ill-ventilated, stuffy conditions under which they contracted
the disease, and to obtain for them a more open-air occupation.
A change of occupation means a lessened wage, and very few
married working men can afford to accept an employment
which means less wages. Their present wages are barely
sufficient to keep their families, and to tell them that they
must have a more suitable occupation is mere mockery.
Under present social conditions early diagnosis and early
treatment are essential. At the present time, the provision of
facilities for the gratuitous bacteriological examination of
sputum is considered one of the most successful means of
securing an earlier recognition of cases. The Council has for
some years undertaken the bacteriological examination of all
suspicious cases, and during the last year 51 such examinations
were made.
In some places Tuberculosis Dispensaries have been
instituted. The object of these institutions is to secure early
diagnosis for patients suspected to be suffering from Pulmonary
Tuberculosis.
The same cause which militated against the detection of
early cases of consumption also prevents the treatment of early
cases.
Verv few married men among the industrial population
can view with anything but dismay a prolonged sojurn at a
Sanatorium, and he is consequently very loth to admit that he
is sufficiently ill to consult a doctor. Unless some arrangement
can be made to support the family without pauperising them