The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-17
SOME ASPECTS Of THE
TUBERCULOSIS PROBLEM
(Continued from Page Nine.l


check, yet there are probably almost
1000 consumptives in Honolulu alone,
while this disease-easier to contract,
more fatal and yet more curable-has
received little expenditure of thought
or money. The Queen s Hospital, Jap
anese and Palama hospitals have ade-
quate facilities for most cases, but
consumptives are rigidly excluded.
The aged Hawaiians are comfortably
housed and their last days made happy
at Lunalilo Home. A splendid hospi-
tai for the children is about to be
erected by private benevolence. But
where can the poor consumptive go in
order that he may make the best
struggle for his life and that the rest
of his family may be protected from
falling victims to his diseased Some
one may answer, "Send him to Kona. -
Parts of Kona have long been known
to be an almost ideal climate for con-
sumptives. One would want little bet
ter with such climate than to follow
out the famous advice of Hippocrates,
who four hundred years before Christ
told his patients to ego into the hills
and drink goats milk. - But in the
complexity of modern economic condi-
lions even goats milk has its price,
and the possibility for the consump-
tive of a successful sOjourn at Kona
demands that a man must either have
some means or that his physical con-
dition should allow him to work to
support himself as best he can. Quite
number of eonsumptiyes have gone
to Kona and been cured, and it is easy
enough to tell others to go to Kona,
but often hard to make such advice
feasible. A work farm for consump-
tives able to do light work or a san
atorium for more advanced cases are
probably too Utopian for us to con-
template at present; yet it is a sad
thing to realize that many of our $50
fatal cases year might be saved by
climate and conditions barely 200
miles away.
The Leah Home has done and is do
ing good work toward the fight, but
its accommodations are entirely made
quate. There are only about twenty
beds available for consumptives
Through the courtesy of the medical
superintendent, Dr. Sinclair. I am able
to report the following results. Of
seventy-three consecutive cases of pull
monary tuberculosis admitted, there
resulted: No improvement in thirty
nine, improvement in eighteen, course
checked in two, and apparent cure in
fourteen. Tt must be remembered that
many of these patients were far ad-
vanced on admission or actually mort
bund, and this being so, the figures
are hopeful that with proper hygienic
conditions consumption may be safely
combated in the environs of Honolulu.
In this connection it is fitting to
call attention to the faithful work of
the Palama Settlement and to pay a
tribute to the efforts of the settlement
nurses in reporting INDECENT eases and
furnishing help and instruction to the
sufferer and the family
The Ladies' College Club are about
to inaugurate an effort which promises
to be productive of great good. Spe-
cial dispensary facilities are planned
and nurse employed whose work will
be to carry the campaign into the con-
sumptive's home and give instruction
in measures of prevention, cleanliness,
ventilation. etc.
The bearing of the insurance cues
tiOn on the welfare of the workmen
has been well developed in Germany.
as has already been pointed out. Some
thing along this line has been accom-
plished by the Portuguese Mutual Ben
eft Association. The members, by the
payment of 81 a month dues. are en-
titled to 1925 a day during sickness.
and when suffering from ineurable con-
ditions are pensioned This provision
would allow many. eases of consump-
tion to receive the care and mainte-
nance necessary in the early stages of
the disease in order that they may be
restored to health and work for their
families. Managers of companies EN-.
plOying numbers of workmen might
well encourage the formation of such
organizations and superintend their
successful administration.
The Republican Territorial platform
has plank emphasizing the import
anee of the Great White Plague and
the attention of the Legislature should
be called to the need of appropriation
for increasing the equipment of Leah
Home or for building a special tuber.
culosis sanatOrium.