Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-09-10
STATE SANATORIA
FOR TREATING
TUBERCULOSIS PROBABLE.
CONSUMPTION A Durable DISEASE

Dr.. D. c. Brockman Believes That the
Next Legislature Will Pass Neces--
sary Laws-Declares State is Over.
run With consumptive Patients.
1t is the belief OF DR.. D. C. Brockman]
OF this city, that at the next session
this coming winter OF the Iowa state
legislature the necessary laws will be
passed establishing state sanatoria for
the treatment of tuberculosis. In
one-half Of the counties Of the state
resolutions have been passed by the
county medical associations calling up
on the legislative committee of the
state medical association to press the
matter as urgently as possible upon
the members of the legislature.
Something Of the kind is extremely
necessary" said DR.. Brockman, ito
curb the ravages of the disease. The
entire state is being run over with
impecunious consumptive patients who
become public charges and who die in
from one to three years. II the state
had properly equipped sanitarium
for the treatment of these cases full
ly one-third of them could be entirely
cured in an average of one year each
and they could be turned out in a con-
dition to support themselves and their
families.
Not Fatal Disease.
SIT is serious blunder into which
the people in general have fallen that
consumptive patient is inevitably
| doomed to death. 1t is fact that one
half of the consumptive patients who
begin treatment before their lungs are
too far gone become convalescent and
are ultimately cured. With the state
properly equipped to treat the disease
the number of cures could be greatly
increased and the danger of infection
from the existing cases could be ma
terially reduced by promptly enforcing
treatment wherever the disease makes
its appearance.
DR.. knopf On tuberculosis.
J. F. Kennedy, M. D., secretary of
| the state board Of health at Des
Moines, is in receipt of the following
| interesting and valuable personal let
ter of recent date, from DIR. S. A.
Knopf of New York City, one of the
most noted experts upon tuberculosis
in the world upon the same sub.
| jcct:
Under separate cover l mailed you
recently a number of my publications
wherein | set forth the urgent need
of state and municipal senatorial in all
the states of our Union as being
among the most essential factors in
the combat of tuberculosis as dis
case of the masses. l do not know
that l can add anything to what |
have said in these reprints and also
/ in my prize essay, tuberculosis as
disease of the Masses and How to
Combat It. 1t would seem to me that
every statesman, physician and philan-
| thropist who has the welfare of the
! PEOPLE at heart should consider it as
KS sacred duty to do his very best to-
ward the creation of such institutions.
Pulmonary tuberculosis is prevent
able and durable disease, and it is
sad, and l might almost say hui
initiating and disgraceful fact that
thousands of our fellow citizens must
die every year, not because their dis
ease is incurable, but because there
are not enough places to cure it.
Proper Treatment Effects Cures.
Modern phthisiotherapy has dem
onstrated that the sanatorium can
accomplish most satisfactory results
IT, nearly all climes, and surely the
state of Iowa can offer enough suit
able sites for the establishment of a
well conducted state sanitorium for
the treatment of its consumptive poor.
| Through the sanatorium, which, when
properly conducted, is not danger
to the neighborhood but blessing,
people within and outside of the in
stitution will become practically edu-
Gated and familiar with the best
means of preventing the disease.
From SO to Is per cent of patients will
be cured after sojourn of eight or
| ten months in a sanatorium. They re-
turn to their respective communities
not only as bread winners but also
as educators in the prevention of con-
sumption and in hygiene in general.
Instead of great economic loss which
4 is now the result of the uncared for
consumptive, the commonwealth will
| be the financial gamer. In short, a
sanatorium established by a state for
| the treatment of it's consumptive poor,
if well equipped and well conducted,
will prove an educational, hygienic,
moral and economic factor, adding to
the health and prosperity Of the COM
munity at large.
mo state in this great country should
be without such an important and
much needed institution. Let me hope
that the state of Iowa will not be be-
| hind in the work toward the solution
| of this important tuberculosis prob