New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-01-10
NEW PHTHISIS CAMP
Vanderbilt Clinic Roof Concerted
Into q Tuberculosis Cure.

end little children OF the tenements are consuming
milk, eggs and broth. Breathing fresh air. ana IN
short having the germs of human1tys worst
scourge driven out of their systems
Vanderbilt Clinic at 5sth street and Tenth ave-
nue. is charged with the fight against tuberculosis
germs in the district west of Eighth avenue ana
north of 5oth That Is the portion OF The city
allotted to the division made by the Assoca-
ton of Tuberculosis Clinics It is large district,
and is more, the Board of Health is about 10
try. the experiment of giving 1t entirely into the
hands Of Vanderbilt Clinic, letting the nurses from
that institution do the work the Board of Health
nurses have been doing St Luke's Hospital. how
ever is preparing enlarge its work in the tuber-
culosis field and will assume the upper part Oh the
district covered by the Vanderbilt Clinic
1t was on a rainy day last week that Tribune
reporter visited the day camp for tubercuous pa
tients which Red Cross money and Wander
bt Clinic energy have established. Wet as II was
| sixteen patients were there. The average
daily attendance is twenty, but Dr. Henry Patter-
SON. one of the attending physicians. says that
they hope by and by TO accommodate fifty. just
at first they feeling their way-seeins how
much they undertake with the 5000 the Rea
Cross has contributed for the first year s work.
Under the long, low siIelter-open to the air on
side-thet along edge of the roof they
sat, the side, the women and girls on
the other
THAT man at the end seemed almost hope
less CASE said the who was In charge that
morning, looking toward old fellow who lay
back in long chair, his legs wrapped up in big
red shawl You should have seen the way they
lived-he and his wife and two children sleeping
in an absolutely dark room in an old house over
here on Eleventh avenue. His wife has tuhercu-
losis, too and found the little girl sleeping
with her and the boy with his tuberculous father
The old mans bed bare mattress of the
floor and he had covering but piece of ragged
carpet. We dragged the mattress into the front
room. where there was a little light and air. and
by degrees we got them to open the windows
bit and the old man will do anything for US
q oT,I1n morn
ing and stays all day. His wife works when she
can. They're very poor, but they haven't asked
for help
us the old improvng?
Yes. They all improve. It's almost startling
sometimes to how they put on flesh"
Next to the old man sat a young negro. wrapped
up and sleeping in his chair, and further along
two white boys Of eighteen years or So One or
these boys has gained twelve pounds in the three
weeks he has been coming to the day camp
and the other fifteen pounds And while not in
the advanced stages of tuberculosis-for only in
cpient cases received-they quite i'll when
they first came.
over on the wor,en's side three small girls sat
around a table playing games All had the dis
ease and one child who sat near, swathed in
wraps, her face showing pale against her black
hair, very ILL.,
| "An we can do with her is the dis
ease said the But over there in the
corner is a more hopeful See how plump
that girl is. She has gained eighteen pounds in
few weeks"
Mothers are there. too One woman who comes
every day is the mother of four young children,
and her husband has been out of work for six
months. The other day. though, he got a job
driving coal wagon; Providence raised up an
old woman to stay with the children, so that the
! mother could attend the day camp, and the fort
anes of that family are looking Up.
Part of the consists in constant feeding. On
/ one side of the roof, dividing the mems shelter
| from the women's. is what Charles B. Grimshaw.
! the superintendent, calls "beanery." One side Of
it is filed with a long, low table. covered with
immaculate white oilcloth and loaded with dishes,
and the other gas stove, which is useful not
only cooking things but for drying the patients
shoes Every patient who comes with wet feet has
his her shoes taken off. and is tucked away in
a chair with dry shoes on and a hot soapstone
| somewhere in the wrappngs
Three times a day at least the patients invade
the ''beanery'' relays. and sitting at the long,
white table stools. benches whatever can, be
found for them consume nourishng things. At $50
: they have milk and raw At noon comes
Notwithstanding soups and stews, vegetables,
plain dishes and simple desserts like bread pud-
ding with jelly. AT Whereabouts in the after
noon they have hot brotns cocoa milk
Of course there is staff of doctors to look after
patients. Dr. Peter Irving is in charge of the
camp DR.. Linsly williams, DR.. Henry Patterson
and DIR. La Fetra the attending physicians.
The adult patients come from DR.. Lamberts de-
partnent and Dr. James's in Vanderbilt Clinc-the
first being the department OF therapeutics and the
other the department OF medicine; and from the
department of childrens diseases. which is under
Dr. Emmett Holt, come the ten small boys
and girls who spend their days at the camp
The patients represent immense amount OF dis
trct visiting and work the part of the nurses. of
course The who in special charge
of the day camp alternate in visiting the tene-
ments, staying at the camp In the morning
and visiting in the afternoon, the other doing her
visiting IN the morning. One nurse has nearly
seventy consumptves on her visiting list and the
other nearly ninety. Not few are too i'll to come
the camp.
Hard work." said of the Yes; It's
work but don't mind it when 1 results. You
have to approach the people. most of them, very
carefully and preach the doctrine of fresh air. etc,
with discretion but when you get to know them
and they you you do great deal with them.
Ii takes good while. sometimes. There is
woman I visited every day last summer hoping 10
find her sober, so 1 could jalk to her about her
drinking That is The of it in this neigh
borhood They will drink and that's bad for
berculosis At last, day in October, l found
this woman sober enough to comprehend what was
said her, and 1 said SOME things-just few.
She swore off then and there. and she has kept
word pretty we'll Oh, she takes drink and
then but she declares it's only beer"
One Of the best features of the day camp is that
patients who refused at Raybrook and Otisville
because they too iii for those institutions can
come to the day camp and be fed and doctored up
to the standard. and then sent away the noun
tains. The day camp will not take advanced cases
but 1t VIII take sicker people than will Raybrook
or Otisvila.
After while, DR.. Patterson says, they hone TO
have lectures and demonstrations for the families
of the patients on tuberculosis. its and its
cure.
THE main thing" he told the Tribune reporter
lis to rid people of the old idea Of tuberculosis
namely, that you cough q few months and then
die The world must be made to realize that tu-
hA