§ Sir JOHN ROLLESTONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the fact that during the ten years ending 1908 the death-rate from pulmonary tuberculosis was 13.3 per 10,000 of the population of the United Kingdom, and 17.9 per 10,000 of the population of that part of the German Empire for which Returns have been furnished to the Registrar-General for England and Wales; and whether he can give the House information as to the cause of the higher death-rate from this disease existing in Germany despite State sick insurance there for many years?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEIt is undoubtedly the case that the rate of mortality from pulmonary tuberculosis is higher in Germany than in the United Kingdom. There has been a large reduction in the death rate from this cause in Germany since the Sickness and Invalidity Insurance laws have been in full operation,1298W and German authorities attribute the reduction in part to the beneficial influence of these laws upon the health of the nation, and particularly to the measures adopted— including an extensive system of sanatoria —for the treatment of consumption in the early stages of the disease. The same authorities agree that unsatisfactory conditions of life, and especially of housing, contribute largely to the existing high rate of mortality from consumption.