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shelters can be closed by canvas or wooden shutters
on each side, or can be entirely open above 2 feet 6 inches
from the ground all round. Nine shelters of this type have
been provided (two in 1912), and two cheaper shelters made
in Street (Somerset), making a total of 11 now in use—eight
by men and three by women. The cost of the Woolwich shelter
is about £9, and the cost of the Street shelter £4.
These shelters were at first lent free, but it has been found
more satisfactory to charge a small rent, varying from 1s. 6d.
to 3d. a week, according to means. Only those who have no
source of income are now exempted from payment. The
weekly call to collect the rent insures that the shelter is being
used. Shelters were lent to 16 persons last year, all being
men. Five of these had the shelter free, one paid 1s. 6d., and
the remainder 6d. a week. Two have been occupied by
married women for over eighteen months.
The results have been eminently satisfactory. There is no
doubt that several lives have been prolonged, including lives
of wage-earners and mothers, which are so valuable to their
children. In many cases, too, the shelters have been of the
greatest value in enabling an advanced and infectious case to
be isolated from other members of the family; without the
shelter the patient would have had to occupy the same bedroom,
if not the same bed, as other persons.
Three bedsteads with bedding are also lent to needy cases
too poor to provide such.
84a. Tuberculosis Dispensary. A Dispensary for the
treatment of tuberculosis was opened in September, 1911.