Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-07-14
CRISIS IN THE WORK
Woman's Club Will Not Maintain
tuberculosis Camp
Expert Recommends Building Pavilion on
Memorial Hospital Grounds-Trust
Committed to the Town.

Memorial Hospital Grounds-Trust
Committed to the Town.
Tho following communication has been
received from the tuberculosis committee
of the Brattleboro Woman's club:
Three years ago the Brattleboro Nom-
ans club became interested in the fear
ful waste of life due to tuberculosis We
are told that this disease can be cured
if taken in time and that 1t Is preventa-
BILE and yet a million people die from IL
every year, one every three minutes III
the United States. In Brattleboro, Tor
the five years, 1906 to 1911, 80 deaths were
recorded as due to tuberculosis SIX Oh
these were in the Retreat. OF the re-
maining 80. 30 were due to pulmonary
tuberculosis. or consumption. This Is
six deaths year; not a large number
compared with Boston's 1900 or New
York's 10000, and not a high death rate
1t is less than one per 1000 while Bos-
toms is nearer two and New YORK
three; but six deaths a year from dis
ease that is durable and preventable'
is six too many, and when one remem-
bers the months of suffering and sor-
row that precede every death, six deaths
a year or even one, becomes unbearaDle.
Stirred by such facts, and inspired by
the great international tuberculosis
Congress, to which they sent a delegate
the Woman's club started out to help
mitigate the scourge in Brattleboro.
The community contributed, and the
Thompson trust lent Its aid. nurse
was engaged to show people with the
disease how to care for themselves In
their homes and how to protect others;
and in 1909 the camp was opened.
This year, for the first time, the camp
kept open through the winter, and on
June l completed its first full year. Dur
thg nat
treatment The average stay at the
camp was % weeks. Five of the IA pa
tents are still there; six were discharged
by their doctors as cured, two as i'm
proved; and one, who was in the last
stages of the disease when she came to
the camp, was sent home unimproved,
and has since died. Eleven of the pa
tients gained in weight an average of
I% pounds; two lost an average of six
pounds one was there only two days, so
that her weight did not change. The
prize patient, who was in an advanced
stage of the disease when she came,
gained 80 pounds in 40 weeks, three
fourths of a pound a week. The average
age of the patients was 25.S years. Eight
were women, six men; IL were born in
the United States; eight had lived in
Brattleboro an average of 16 years; six
had lived here two years or less
The running expenses of the camp
for the year were $500, or $3.50 per pa
tient per day. OF this, 291A per cent
went for food, 81 per cent for salaries
and wages The National Association
for the Study and Prevention of Tuber-
culosis published a bulletin a year ago
showing that the average cost in 80
tuberculosis sanataria in all parts of
the United States was s1.67 per patient
per day. the lowest being 90 cents and
the highest $3.50. One-third of the an
nual expenditures was shown to go for
food, one-third for salaries and wages.
The average cost for food per patient
per day was 81 cents, while in Brattle-
boro it was n cents the average cost
for salaries and wages per patient per
day was As cents, while in Brattleboro
it was go cents. But to compare an in
sttution which averages five patients
with institutions which aVarege Y is not
flair. There are certain fundamental ex-
penses which have to be met whether
there are few or many patients. The
Brattleboro camp, for instance, needed
a horse, a man, a cook and two nurses
to care for the patients in the camp and
in their homes-two nurses because the
camp patients can never be left without
one; and yet this staff could just as
well take care of twice as many pa
TENTS thus bringing the cost of salaries
and wages below the as cents per day
found in the larger institutions. Just so,
the stan being nearly as many as the
patients, the cost for food per patient
looks very high The cost of food per
person per day, however, Is only 40 cents,
or 16 cents per meal, which Is not high
for the kind of diet necessary In such
an institution.
At the conclusion of this, the first
complete year Of the camp. the Woman's
club voted to discontinue the direction
of the tuberculosis work, believing that
the existence and the method of treat
ing the disease had been sufficiently dem
onstrated and that now the RESPONSE
bility OF dealing with it would be more
properly and more efficiently under
taken by citizens organization. At
the same time. the Thompson trust,
which has contributed so generously to
the work, giving all but $500 for the run
ming expenses of the camp this year, as
well as $1,000 for permanent improve
ments and Sl400 for the care of patients
in their homes, signihed its inability
longer to contribute so largely to the
work. The trustees have made it clear
from the first that they were willing to
contribute to the demonstration under
taken by the Womans club, but only as
demonstration, because they believe
tuberculosis to be peculiarly a social dis
ease, both the responsibility and the
remedy for 1t resting with society and
its abolition depending upon the united
and continued effort of the whole town,
official and individual.
Before putting the matter before the
town, it was thought best to obtain ex-
pert advice upon the present equipment
for treating the disease and accordingly
the National Association for the Study
and Prevention OF tuberculosis was ap-
pealed to. They sent DR.. Thomas s,