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4
PREVENTION OF PHTHISIS AND TUBERCULOSIS.
It is sad to have to record the deaths of seven people from
Phthisis. This is now regarded as an infectious, and therefore
preventable disease. The infection is usually spread through the
inhalation of the dried expectoration, or by drinking the milk of
tuberculous cows. Damp, ill-ventilated houses lower the vitality,
and render the dwellers in them less able to resist the contagion.
All such houses should be reported, and all rooms used by
phthisical patients should be disinfected under the supervision of
Mr. Charles, the Sanitary Inspector. A patient suffering from this
disease should sleep alone. He should not expectorate on the
floors, and all his sputa should be burned. Several cases of
Tuberculosis have occurred in children. This should induce all
parents to make careful enquiry concerning the sanitary condition
of the sources of the milk they purchase for their children, and the
Council should appoint a Veterinary Surgeon to test all the dairy
cattle for Tuberculosis.
DISTRICT NURSES.
The circumstances of the death from Typhoid at Greenhill
afford strong proof of the need in the district for such Nurses.
In such cases skilled nursing is as essential as medical skill,
yet but for the occasional attendance of a kind lady, the only
nurse of the unfortunate patient was his wife, who was a cripple
with the care of six children, all of tender age.
Unless the philanthropy of the inhabitants provide District
Nurses we must be prepared to expect similar tragedies.
BACTERIOLOGICAL TESTS.
That infectious diseases should be diagnosed early is essential
to their prompt isolation. Tests by which they can be diagnosed
at the outset are now available for Typhoid Fever, Diphtheria, &c.
These tests have been provided for the medical men of the district
at Brighton and other places.
I recommend the Council to do so for Harrow.