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(3) The main factor that decides the ultimate fate is the
disposition or diathisis inherited from the parents.
(4) The length of time that will elapse from the age at
which infection occurs in youth and death takes place in adult
life may be considerably modified by environment, using the
word in its widest sense.
(5) In a small number of cases the modern methods of
open-air life may enable a permanent immunity to be established.
(C) There is no statistical evidence to believe that the
permanent segregation of all notified cases of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis would lead to a material reduction in the numbers
dying from this disease. This is based on the fact that
discomfort and infection are far from being synonymous—as
an actual fact the infected and apparently healthy are many
times more numerous and live for a much longer period
of time than those showing unmistakable signs of disease.
The activities, and hence power, of distributing the bacillus of
the former are unrestricted—the movements of the latter are
necessarily curtailed considerably by their condition.
(7) As a deduction it would seem that beyond the ordinary
amenities that civilised life requires little can be done. It
certainly seems unjust to collect the dying in a leper house
for a crime of which they have not been proved guilty.
(8) Adequate wages, moderation in the satiation of all
human appetites, and the breathing of air which has at least
had time to get cool before it is inhaled by a second person,
would seem to be the main lines on which further reduction
in the ravages of the diseases is to be expected.
(9) Specific treatment, probably through the injection
into the system of all children in early life of some immunising
substance on lines similar to vaccination, seems to be the
main hope of the future, but the time is not yet.