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Such an institution will be, in my opinion, of infinite service to
the County in dealing with the prevention of consumption.
Provision is made in the constitution for the education of the
patient in the preventive and curative aspects of his ailment, and
for an arrangement whereby he will be visited and encouraged to
persevere in the sanatorium mode of life after he has left the institution.
This is an aspect of the treatment of consumption that
commends itself strongly to sanitarians, and should ensure for the
Middlesex scheme the heartiest approval and support of those
authorities to whom the prevention of disease is entrusted.
The Edmonton District Council was one of the first to signify
their intention of supporting the scheme, and they have provisionally
arranged to take up 3 beds in the institution for the use of patients
belonging to the district whose cases, after investigation, may prove
to be suitable ones for treatment.
In this way from 12 to 16 consumptives yearly may enjoy the
benefit of having their health, in many cases, improved; in a few
perhaps, restored; and in all the lesson will have been learnt as to
how best to order their mode of living so as to prolong life, and at
the same time prevent their disease from being a danger to their
families and neighbours.
The district may be expected to benefit directly from this reduction
in the number of its possible sources of infection, and indirectly, to
an even greater extent, by the good example in sanitary living
offered by the presence of an increasing number of ex-sanatorium
patients among the inhabitants.
Respiratory Diseases, including bronchitis, pneumonia,
pleurisy and other non-tuberculous diseases of the respiratory system,
accounted for 135 deaths, or a death rate of 2.5 per 1,000. The
number of deaths in 1903 was 106, and the death rate 2.0 per 1,000.
The increased mortality from these diseases is, I think, partly