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At the inception of the Tuberculosis Service in England the
scientific diagnosis of this complaint had already reached a remarkable
level of attainment, but the years that have passed since then
have so very considerably increased our knowledge that already
the data on which these diagnoses were made are looked upon
as out of date.
The whole situation is further complicated, as I have pointed
out elsewhere, by the fact that from a strictly scientific standpoint
a very large proportion of the whole population have at some time
or another suffered from tuberculosis of one form or another,
whilst consumption from a practical standpoint is not nearly so
common as such a scientific survey would indicate, because when
we speak of consumption from an administrative standpoint we
mean that the health of the patient is or is likely to become bankrupt
by reason of this disease. It will not therefore be surprising
for me to say that in going over the Tuberculosis Register we have
found a large number of persons who have been notified on evidence
we should not now look upon as conclusive.
The register, too, has now been going a sufficient number of
years for a large number of persons very happily to have been
cured.
Work has been done during the year 1929 removing such
persons from the register. It is necessary to be very sure such
removals are quite proper before they are made, and these
removals involve a lot of time administratively and in correspondence.