The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-13
LESSON or THE Lung BLOCK"
A City Illustration OF the Need OF san''
tariuns for COnsumptives.

v4fluno 1OF OnkuHuVstNCu.
To impress upon the public the urgent
! need of sanitariums for the city's sufferers
| from tuberculosis the committee on the
Prevention Of tuberculosis OF the Charity
Organization Society has issued in PAM
phlet form an account of what has become
! known as the Lung Block, because OF the
many cases Of consumpt ion occurring there.
The pamphlet was written by Ernest Poole.
The Lung Block" is In the lower East
Side. 1t shelters 1000 persons, of whom
one-tenth are children less than years
old. In the last ten years there have been
PCS deaths from consumption among the
residents Of the block. The block is re-
garded az typical rather than exceptional.
On his first visit to the Lung Block" Mr..
Poole found in "a third floor rear room a
blind and consumptive Scotchman with a
small sickly daughter and drunken wife
and son. Within year father and daugh-
ter were dead.
The rest OF the family moved away and
the room was next occupied by Hebrew.
who. within eight months, also died Of con-
sumption. Then came a German and his
wife. and the latter soon died in her turn.
~
ceeded to the infected place. In six months
the lingering germs had killed him, too.
Many rooms in the block have similar
histories. On the record the committee
bases its plea for sanitariums for con-
sumptives.
In Germany every laborer or servant 10
obliged by law to be insured against illness.
Hence as soon as consumption appears,
the sufferer is quickly taken for treatment
to one of the many public sanitariums.
Here, however. especially when the
wage Garner of family is seized the con-
sumptive struggles on until he can work
no more Thus he lacks the treatment
which might cure him and further helps
to spread the disease.
The committee would establish the sani-
tariums in the country. Consumption
cannot be cured in or near a city, it says.
Occasionally miracle works itself.
For instance, the pamphlet gives an &C.
count OF Danish woman-a sixteen year
resident of the Lung Block" who cured
her husband last December, after tho doc
tors had given him up, by telling him that
all doctors are fools" and that he was .
coward" and by making him lie quiet. night
and day. on lounge by an open window
But this was ono case among thousands.
Across the street at that very time Ger
man widow, whose husband had died Of
consumption year before. was going
regularly to her employment. fighting
vain fight with the disease on the score
that work is too rare 30 be given up"
Tho aim Of New Yorks consumption
fighters is to arouse interest in the sub
sidizing Of public sanitariums in adjacent
rural districts The pamphlet records
that DR.. Biggs Of the Health Department
has estimated that the money loss to the
city from consumption is $23 900 900 year
at least.
THE plague, he argues, attacks young
men most of all. The average cost to
society of mans bringing up is 81 500,
loan which he returns only by the labor
Of vigorous manhood.
Multiply this by the thousands OF young
men who die here each year Of the plague.
To this loss you must also add the several
hundred dollars 1t costs each smitten one
actually to die. And to this again must
be added the expense to the city OF the
wives and children forced on the charity
lists"
-Four per cent. Of the tenement con-
sumptives," says DR., Knopf. go to hos
ptals--most OF them to die. and still worse,
many to be placed, from lack of room, in
wards with other patients. This 1 per
cent, costs the city $500 ,Oo0 year. without
proportionate result.
Treble this sum and thousands Of lives
may be saved annually. They will not
only be saved they will cease to be menace
to others"
Five millions wisely used now for great
sanat oria, argue the consumption fighters.
in their pamphlet. -for more dispensaries
and diet stations, for more inspect OTIS.
would save countless millions to be lost
year after year in the future"