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The second is that of the conditions under which disease,
present at a given time or occasion, spreads, and becomes diffused
through the population.
It is to the second of these problems that 1 now refer.
Facilities are offered by the Council to every practitioner
whereby modern methods of diagnosis can be applied, free of cost,
in every suitable case. From the administrative point of view
every effort is made to encourage the use of these facilities.
As a rule swabs, cultures, and blood specimens, &c., are sent to
the Lister Institute, but in all urgent or particular cases I have
been glad to carry out the diagnostic tests myself at once, at the
Hospital Laboratory,
It is sought, too, to encourage the early and prompt notification
of the occurrence of cases of disease (even with due reservation
where the diagnosis is not fully established), by informal certificate
or telephonic communication.
Saving of time in this way means the prevention of disease
often, the saving of life not infrequently, and, what may
perhaps be more generally appreciated, the saving of expense
nearly always.
The public, whatever views they may hold in the abstract as
to the value of administrative sanitary action, are very quick to
appreciate, when a concrete case is presented to them in their own
families, how much is gained when the doctor in attendance prefers
his errors, if any, to be on the safe side, and treats suspicious
cases of scarlet fever or diphtheria, &c., as "Guilty till proved
innocent,"