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in the district, but that a greater proportion of those that there are are
being recognised. This is to the advantage of the patients themselves
and of the community.
There is a reason for thinking that this may be the explanation.
At one time there were many posthumous notifications, and it was not
at all uncommon to have to communicate with local medical practitioners
about their failure to notify. In 1935 the disease had not been notified
in nearly one-third of the persons who died from pulmonary tuberculosis,
and in more than half of those who died from non-pulmonary tuberculosis.
To-day, most of those who die from tuberculosis but who have not been
notified, die in institutions ; in many of these the diagnosis was made
post-mortem. This change is in keeping with an improvement in the
standards of the notification of the disease.