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While a specific bacterium universally distributed in all
civilised communities exists as the direct cause of tuberculosis,
it must not be forgotten that the indirect or predisposing factors
are engendered by poverty, want of fresh air, etc., and that a
community situated under favourable environmental and other
conditions is less prone to the ravages of tuberculosis than a
community living under less favourable circumstances.
Quoting from the last Annual Report of the Medical Officer
of Health for Newcastle-on-Tyne, it is found that, over a period
of 9 years, the average tuberculosis death rate in two of the
st wards of the City was 2.55 and 2.53 compared with 0.81
and 0.70 for two better class neighbourhoods. Apart from
certain dangerous trades as a predisposing factor in tuberculosis,
the prime cause is admittedly life spent under defective and
insanitary home conditions combined with, in many cases, insufficient
food and other privations associated with unemployment and
industrial depression, although it would not, I think, be correct
to say that the scale of outdoor relief is sufficiently inadequate