36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



ditions of climate led Sir John to say on this point: "I cannot, 

 therefore, admit that there is much in the dampness of the atmos- 

 phere as a cause of tuberculosis in Ireland." Sir William Osier 

 takes precisely the same ground and pointed out at the opening of 

 the Tuberculosis Exhibit in Dublin, that Cornwall, with a much 

 damper atmosphere than that of Ireland, was so free from the 

 disease that consumptives were sent there. In Cardiff, Wales, with 

 a damp climate and with the ground water in many places near the 

 surface in the gravel and with the lower part of the town on a stifif 

 marine clay, very retentive of moisture, the tuberculosis death rate 

 for 1906 was only 1.20 per i,ooo. On the other hand in Belfast, 

 with a smaller rainfall (34.57 inches as against 42.43 inches) the 

 mortality was more than twice as much, or 2.77 per 1,000. The 

 figures for 1906 were: 



Death rate 

 from 

 Rainfall tuberculosis 



inches per looo 



Manchester, notoriously damp, foggy and smoky 1.82 



Liverpool 1-82 



London 1.42 



Cardiff, Wales 42.81 1.20 



Bolton, England 42-43 i-H 



Belfast, Ireland 34-57 2.77 



Cork 4-53 



Dublin, Ireland 27.73 2.91 



North Dublin, Ireland 4-70 



After taking up in turn dampness of soil, emigration as a cause 

 for tuberculosis, the asserted susceptibility of the Irish to tuberculo- 

 sis, poverty and social position, food and drink and industries, and 

 after weighing them carefully they were all discarded as insufficient 

 causes of this mortality. The prime cause was declared to be want 

 of Sanitary Reform and the prevalent domestic or home treatment 

 of the advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. 



Since 1907 an encouraging decline in the mortality from tuber- 

 culosis has been noted. Whereas the rate for both sexes throughout 

 Ireland was 273.6 per 100,000 in 1907 it had dropped by gradual 

 stages to 215.2 in 1912. Sir William Thompson, the General Register 

 for Ireland, justly attributes this well marked decrease during the 

 past six years to the exertion of Her Excellency, the Countess of 

 Aberdeen.^ 



^ Trans. National Association for the Prevention of Consumption and 

 Other Forms of Tuberculosis, 5th Annual Conference, London, August 4 

 and 5, 1913. See also Sir John Moore, Interstate Medical Journ., April, 1914. 



