[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Northampton County Borough.

  • Northampton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Northampton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/44 (page 8)
    In connection with the preventive treatment of this very destructive malady, we have to bear in mind that it is infectious, being communicable from one person to another. It is a disease attacking not only man, but the lower animals, being common amongst cattle and other animals ; it is also capable of transmission from animals to human beings, abundant evidence having been produced to render this an indisputable fact. In my last annual report reference was made to this subject, and, regard¬ ing it as I do one of extreme importance, I shall revert to some of the observa¬ tions I made on that occasion. In the first place we have to remember that tuberculosis is induced by a particular bacillus or micro-organism, and the des¬ truction of this is of paramount import. So far as this is concerned in the case of tuberculosis in animals, it is necessary that the flesh of animals suffering from tuberculosis should not be used as human food, for the reason that the danger of its introduction by this channel into the human system cannot be averted, the organism being liable to escape destruction by insufficient cooking. It is true that in milk the bacillus may be killed by boiling; but as milk, as a rule, is not boiled before being consumed, it is necessary that the milk of tuber¬ culous animals should be condemned as being unfit for human food. In my report of last year, previously alluded to, I briefly referred to some of those well recognised rules, the adoption of which has been advocated in the preventive treatment of consumption, which I will now ask permission to repeat to some extent. In the first place it has long been known that exposure to inhygienic influences favours the development of tuberculosis in those so predisposed, therefore all insanitary conditions producing unwholesomeness and unhealthi¬ ness are to be avoided. Habitations rendered unhealthy by overcrowding or atmospheric pollution, due to insufficient ventilation, and other types of in¬ sanitation should be removed or amended. The consumptive individual should not be allowed to associate with healthy persons in crowded places, such as factories and workshops, where numbers of persons are congregated. It is essential that the less such persons are brought into contact with the healthy the better. In all cases when practicable there can be no question as to the advisability in houses whose inmates consist of consumptive patients, of apartments being appropriated for their use. Further it appears to me inadvisable that consumptives should be located in the general wards of hospitals. At any