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39
Looking over Schedule B, page 53, it will be seen that Consumption
causes more deaths than Small Pox, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Croup,
Typhoid and Measles, and at a time of life when man's capacity for
work and his value to the country is greatest.
Small Pox, Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria prevention have cost your
authority £7,500, during the past year, while practically nothing has
been done in the way of prevention of Phthisis except the disinfection
of rooms when deaths took place.
In last year's report I pointed out that at present we have no means
of knowing who is suffering from Consumption, and although disinfection
is offered whenever a case proves fatal, that is not enough. Before
death, infectivity is constant and active; and I would suggest that every
practitioner should be permitted to send the sputum of any suspicious
or doubtful case to Dr. Thresh for bacteriological diagnosis, and the
expenses paid by your Authority
If a positive diagnosis is made, the case should be immediately
notified and a fee paid as under the Act of 1889.
The disease is a typical preventive one, and the loss and misery
produced by it incalculable.
As many of the sufferers are neither paupers nor persons able to afford
to pay for the usual Open-air Sanatorium treatment, which is so effective,
and the preventable and curative nature of the disease is so well
established that Authorities like Sheffield and Brighton are either
contemplating building Sanatoria or maintaining beds at some of the
existing ones.
"The provision of Sanatoria for Consumption is above all a case for
philanthropy, and the philanthropist would have the satisfaction of
knowing that by this means he was giving a fresh lease of life to many
whose continuance as wage earners is essential for the welfare of the
families of the poor. I feel sure that much can be done by way of
voluntary notification and education of the public with very little
expense."—N ewsholme.
OTHER DISEASES.
Other diseases of the Respiratory Organs—not Consumption—caused
230 deaths, compared with 189 in 1901.
Cancer caused 52, practically the same as last year, and Cirrhosis of
the Liver 10 deaths, as compared with 16 in 1901.