PHTHISIS-A MARKED INCREASE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 305, 21 June 1912, Page 4

PHTHISIS-A MARKED INCREASE

18 IT THE WET WINTER? By Telegraph-Press Association. ' , ... , Auckland, June 18. p J""J ep ° rt ,. t0 the Hospital ™% Consumption Sanatorium drew attention to the fact that appliT Jon* for admission to the insffion dunng the past six months had increS lWper cent, as compared with previous tendent for the remarkable increase was pt2 p nally wet wcather th °° s i a ™ ew *<> ascertaining whether there had been any such increase locally, a reporter waited on Dr. MakeiU J&. tact Health Officer, who supS h£ with figures relating to notifications of consumption oases for the past five year*. In 1907 the number was 190, and, a year £ ion??? Z** a " increaße of onl J- ™- In 190!) the figures dropped to 118, but r?7s° I" 191 °' and ' a^in < in W". WoW I ille year June > mi > *« May, 1912 the figures are 200-the heaviest for the past half-decade. Asked for an explanation of the increase, Dr. Makgill said that it was very hard to obtain accurate data as to such cases. Consumption was a very different thing to typhoid fever, for instance, the pronounced nature of which left no doubt as to the nature of tit* complaint. Many of the incipient phthisiß eases were not reported at all. The exceptionally wet weather of the past few months might have had the effect of bringing a number of less advanced cases to a head, thus accounting for the difference in figures.