The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-22

abused and which has killed many 9TH
crwise hopeful cases. When the pa
tient has reached the condition I have
described 1t is Invaluable and will grad-
ually prepare him to return to every
day life.
Climate a Factor
81, who myself, was restored to
health largely by the aid Of q Won
derful climate. and who have seen 80
many others thus restored, fully real
lie It's great value and would regret
indeed IL anyone I loved were unable
to avail themselves of 1t. Further
many cases that could not possibly
hope to recover in such climates as
Birmingham would do we'll in Asheville
or Colorado, at the same time / can
mot class climate as an essential Of
treatment, valuable as it is. II the
patient IL able to get there as good or
better conditions of living, quarters
and food than he had at home. and
to get these demands at least moder
ate means, he would be a fool not to
use them as they will very greatly In
crease his chances of recovery. But
we are talking of the poor working
man and how can he possibly afford
the railroad journey and the cost of
board and lodging far from homer In
| is for the city to establish a sanitoriun
on the nearest hills in the country,
where the air is pure and clean, and
| IL there Is no such sanitarium, then
let not the patient give up hope I'M
der the guidance of the many charitable
doctors who do honor to my calling
by giving their services without money
and without price to the poor; let him
use what little money he has to Inn
nr0VR n of In nj n
sunshine; to get better cooked food and
more of 1t; to correct his Hours and
his habits If possible, to live day AMI
night on the roof or back yard of his
house. By following such plans poor
people all over the country in the
worst of climates. through the early
discovery of their cases In tuberculosis
dispensaries kept up by the city of the
charitable and by financial aid from
these same sources. have been restored
TO health and working efficiency and ii
can be done here as well.
Let me only urge them to be brave
and determined and unfaltering, to re-
fuse to stay in the blues, to compel
eheerfulness by will power, to refuse to
look on the black side of things which
is SO plain, and to hunt for the silver
lining to their cloud for in this disease
the treatment of the mind is just as
necessary as that of the body.
What Can Public Do
And now l come to the final part of
my talk.
What can the public do to help fight
this disease?
Il have already made sufficiently plain
what they and their doctors can do for
themselves and am now only concerned
With what you all. can do for the poor in
your midst, both because they are a con-
slant menace to the whole town as I
have shown and because as men and
Christians it is our duty to help them.
First, then if you are to succeed, you
will absolutely need organization; with
out it the best cause will fail and the
strongest enthusiasm be dissipated with
X as the example of our great trust
shows, the worst cause may triumph.
Secondly, let our society, when organ
lied, start in the city, in the school
primarily, but also among all of your
citizens, campaign of education. This
should be carried out by the circulation
or proper pamphlet of instruction, by
placards on the streets and cars, by fire.
quent articles in your newspaper which
are all ready to help in such a cause as
this and by frequent public lectures
Splitting
After creating an intelligent knowl-
edge of the disease and a proper public
sentiment against the splitting habit do
not yet turn to laws, as we Ameri-
cans are prone to do in the hope that
the passage of a law by your legisla-
tors will at once convert the careless into
the careful, the dirty into the ciean, the
poor into the rich, but work at cultivat-
ing a strong public sentiment in favor
of the tuberculosis crusade, from which
alone any useful law can come and by
which alone any law is made really ef-
fectual.
"A sentiment against sweat shops,
against landlords renting out filthy. in
sanitary, disease-breeding tenements, a
sentiment against unduly long hours of
work and unhealthful places of labor
must be created.
First you will have to attack the diff
fcult problem of notification. When
this has been done you will find laws
useful, and, ba cked up by such senti-
ment, they will accomplish their pur-
pose.
Only by such law can the dwellings
Of the tuberculosis poor be discovered
and disinfected and rendered harmless
when they move or die, and thus the
common source of the spread of the dis
ease to every succeeding family of lodg
ers be removed
Next you must go to your city and
state authorities and to your philanthro
pists and to every one who will help and
raise the means to look after the cases
thus discovered.
I'm the care of these cases there are
seven important steps %. the tubercu-
osis dispensary and clinic; (9 the visit
ing nurse; 90 the tuberculosis class; (4)
the sanitorium for light and durable
cases; 90 the convalescent form; % pos
sibly, institutions where are kept the sick
criminal poor who cannot and will not
be decent and careful and who, for the
safety of the community, must be pre-
vented from spreadink the disease.
Dispensary
First started In Lille, France, the tu-
berculosis dispensary has proved invalu-
able, not only in finding out the early
cases for cure. and advanced cases for
segregation but in giving the doctors
an opportunity to become intimately Ia
milar with the disease. Here the patient