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of treatment at home. All the cases under treatment at the dispensaries,
or at one time under treatment at the dispensaries, had
a sputum examination carried out, and it is therefore known that
as regards 53 of the cases who did not have even a bed to themselves,
tubercle bacilli were present in the sputum.
A further point of great interest and importance is the stage
of the disease at the first attendance of the patients who came
under dispensary treatment and died during the year.
There were 116 deaths among dispensary patients and 54 of
these patients or 46.5 per cent. were in the final stage of the disease
on first attendance, 53 patients or 45.6 per cent. were in the
second stage. It also appears from an examination of the case
papers that 81 of these cases or 69.8 per cent. had been suffering
from this disease for a period varying between three to twelve
months, but a great many had evidently been ill for a far longer
period, suffering evidently from tuberculosis of the lungs as shown
by the fact of the history of such conditions as pleurisy and
haemorrhage, etc., manifestations which were in all probability
in every case tuberculous but which the patients did not realise
were connected with the final onset; however, no fewer than 50
of the total number of cases, or 43.1 per cent. had known for a
longer period than one year that they were suffering from Consumption.
A very great deal could be done for advanced cases by the
Tuberculosis Care Committee even under the present unsatisfactory
conditions as regards institutional accommodation if
sufficient support were given to the Committee, but even the
routine work of caring for sanatorium cases has been carried on
under very considerable difficulties, owing to the fact that, without
any warning whatsoever, the Ministry of Health in a letter dated
April 1st, 1921, deducted from the amount of the Tuberculosis
Grant payable to the Council, the sum of £100, in respect of
Grants to the Tuberculosis Care Committee "as this matter is at