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a marine pensioner. The remainder were occupied in selling newspapers, in the
tea and cocoa trade, feather working, box making, book edge gilding, copper plate
printing, pianoforte tuning, fish trade, coffee shop keeping, silk spinning, butchering
business, horse collar making, leather cutting, mat mending, hot water fitting,
surgical pad making, electrical engineering, trunk making, fish frying, sugar boiling
and marquetry cutting ; 1 was a coachman, 1 a lift man, and 1 a tram conductor.
In the cases of the females, 72 of the patients were house wives, 28 were school
children, 22 were employed in making various articles of wearing apparel, 9 were
box makers, 5 domestic servants, 5 were employed in the printing and stationery
trades, 4 were packers, 2 french polishers, 2 factory hands, 2 laundresses, and 8
were respectively a saddle stitcher, a charwoman, a card bronzer, a wire worker,
a barmaid, a ward maid in a hospital, a button coverer and a waitress.
With respect to the sanitary condition of the dwellings occupied by the patients,
the chief points to which attention was specially directed were the amount of cubic
space available, the means for securing proper ventilation, the amount of light,
dryness, and the general conditions as regards cleanliness of the dwelling. As a
result of the inspections made in 278 instances the dwellings were satisfactory or
fairly so ; in the remaining 145 they were more or less unsatisfactory. In 160 of the
cases, family histories of tuberculosis was obtained, and in 143 instances evidence
more or less strong was forthcoming pointing to infection from previous cases,
either at home or at the places where patients were employed.
Disinfection was carried out by the Sanitary Authority in connection with
204 rooms at 178 premises, and the usual steps were taken as regards textile articles
exposed to infection. In several instances, through the agency of charitable societies
at work in the Borough, institutional treatment was obtained for a few of the patients,
and some 7 patients were sent into sanatoria by the London Insurance Committee.
The accommodation at the Shoreditch infirmary was largely used mostly
by advanced cases, some 209 persons being admitted. Approximately 49 per cent.
of the deaths of inhabitants of the Borough from consumption during the year
occurred in this institution as compared with something over 40 per cent. for 1911.
Altogether 59 per cent. of the deaths of persons belonging to Shoreditch dying
from consumption took place in public institutions within or beyond the limits
of the Borough.
In my last annual report I referred to the subject of a tuberculosis dispensary
for the Borough, and I mentioned that steps had been taken with a view to the
establishment of a joint one for Shoreditch and Finsbury, but that difficulties had
arisen which had resulted in a suspension of proceedings for the time being. The
matter remained in abeyance for several months, but during this time the outpatient
department of the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest was reconstructed,
special attention being given to the accommodation provided with the object of