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of age, when a man is of the greatest value to the State, and
when he is the main support of a family dependent on him.
During the years 1910 and 1911, the average age at death of
consumptives in this district was 29.56 and 34.78 years respectively.
Cost of Consumption. Dr. Farr, in the 39th Annual Beport
of the Begistrar-General of Births and Deaths, estimated the mean
economic value of each member of the community as £110, his
estimate being based on the low standard of the agricultural labourer
of that period, 1876. On the same basis the net value of a man
of 25 years (i.e., the present value represented by the excess of
his future earnings over cost of maintenance) was estimated by him
at £246. Becently, Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale University,
has estimated the minimum worth of the average American life
as 4,000 dollars at the age of 20 years. These estimates, when
applied to a disease like Consumption, make no allowance for loss
of wages during the protracted illness, nor the cost of future
maintenance of families left destitute by the death of the wageearner.
Having regard to all these facts, it is well within the mark
to say that each death from Consumption in this district represents
an economic loss of £200, or in other words the average loss in
this district on account of the 37 deaths per annum due to Consumption
is, as a low estimate, £7,400 per annum.
Number suffering from Consumption. I have said that 407
persons have died of Consumption during the past eleven years,
or an average of 37 deaths per annum. Dr. Philip, of Edinburgh,
who has studied this question for 20 years, states that the number
of persons living already seriously affected by Consumption may
be taken as ten times the mortality in any given district, and we
can therefore say that the number suffering from Consumption in
this district at any time is 370. That this figure is approximately
correct may be shown in other ways, e.g., during the first four
weeks of 1912, 24 cases of consumption were notified, making at
this rate a total of 312 for the year.