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42
it may the figures are very curious 39 deaths and 45 notifications.
The number of deaths to notifications is accounted for I think by
the fact that many of the notifications were cases which were in the
last stage; this discrepancy will of course right itself this year.
In the first year of notification a number of the old chronic cases
were swept in.
As to the usefulness or not of voluntary notification it is
early to give an opinion, but as far as we have gone in Barking
I think it is likely to prove most beneficial. The treatment of the
disease among the poor from which most of our cases are drawn
is admittedly most unsatisfactory.
In a fair number I succeeded after a very great deal of
difficulty in getting in-patients letters for them for one or other of
the consumptiv e hospitals. I found that in all cases there was
benefit and in many cases great benefit, but on their discharge
from hospital and the return to the old surroundings the old
symptoms returned, and in a few months the sufferer was as bad as
ever. A great many (some of them the poorest) after struggling
along for varying periods find their way into the Union Infirmary.
Cancer.
The number of cases dying from this disease during the year
was 8, as against 12 for the year before. This gives a crude rate
per 1,000 persons living of .27. Seven of these took place in the
age period 25 to 65, and only one in the age period 65 upwards.