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From the above figures it would appear that 855 persons, 528 males and 327
females, were certified as suffering from consumption during the year. In a considerable
proportion of the cases, however, there were notifications under more
than one of the regulations of the same person. In a number of instances the same
case was certified under all three sets of regulations. When the necessary corrections
were made, the actual number of persons certified during the year as suffering
from consumption was found to be 703, of whom 432 were males and 271 females.
The distribution of the cases notified according to age-periods and localities
is shown in Table II. (Appendix). The cases certified were most numerous, in proportion
to the population, in Hoxton and Wenlock Wards, where they amounted
to 8.3 per 1,000 inhabitants. They were least numerous in Haggerston Ward, where
the rate was 3.3 per 1,000 population.
In the great majority of the cases where the patients were not inmates of public
institutions in the Borough, the addresses given on the certificates were visited
by the sanitary inspectors and health visitors, and, as far as practicable steps,
were taken with a view to preventing the spread of infection and for securing such
measures for the disinfection of dwellings and the removal of insanitary conditions,
prejudicial to the health of consumptive persons, as appeared necessary.
Enquiries were made as regards some 423 of the cases certified. In 249 of these
the patients were males and 174 females. With respect to the males, their occupations
were as follows:—various branches of the furniture trade in 22 instances,
labourers 17, warehouse porters 15, hawkers and general dealers 13, schoolboys 13,
printing 12, carmen 11, french polishing 10, metal working 10, boot trade 10,
building trades 7, walking stick mounters and dressers 7, glass workers 5, packers 5,
porters in various trades 5, clerks 5, book trade 5, tailors 4, beer and spirit trades 4,
scavengers 4, furriers 3, postal service 3, wood sawyers 2, tobacco trade 2, picture
frame makers 2, marble workers 2, horsekeepers 2, railway workers 2, waiters 2,
commercial travellers 2, police service 2, packing case makers 2, and errand boys 2.
In 9 instances no occupation could be ascertained, and in one case the patient was