The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-07-14
THE TUBERCULOSIS PROBLEM
Shall the Town Continue the Good Work the Womans
Club Has Started?

nurses to care for the patients in the camp
and in their homes-two nurses because
| the camp patients can never be left with
| out one; and yet this staff could just as
well take care of twice as many patients,
| thus bringing the cost OF salaries and
wages below the As cents per day found in
| the larger institutions. just so. the staff
| being nearly as many as the patients, the
cost for food per patient looks very high.
! The cost OF food per person per day, how
ever, is only 40 cents, or 10 cents per
meal which is not high for the kind of
| diet necessary in such an institution.
| AT the conclusion of this, the first com
| plete year of the camp, the Woman's club
voted to discontinue the direction of the
tuberculosis work, believing that the exist
ence and the method of treating the dis
ease had been sufficiently demonstrated,
and that now the responsibility of dealing
with it would be more properly and more
efficiently undertaken by citizens organ
ization. At the same time, the Thompson
Trust, which has contributed so generously
to the work-giving all but 5000 of the
running expenses of the camp this year, as
well as 81 900 for permanent improve
ments, and 81 400 for the care of patients
in their homes-signified its inability long
er 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 undertaken by the
Woman's club, but only as a demonstra
ton, because they believe tuberculosis to
be peculiarly a, social disease, both the re-
sponsibility and the remedy for it resting
with society and its abolition depend
ing 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 expert
advice upon the present equipment for
treating the disease and accordingly the
National Association for the Study and
Prevention of tuberculosis was appealed
to-. They sent DR.. Thomas S. Darlington,
assistant secretary of the association,
author of two publications upon Tubercu-
losis Hospital and Sanatorium Construc-
ton and a recognized authority upon tuber-
culosis sanatoria. DR. Darlington inspected I
the tuberculosis camp and the hospital and |
consulted with the tuberculosis committee |
of the Woman's club and with the hospital
authorities. As a result, DIR. Darlington
made the following recommendations
First: That the tuberculosis camp be
closed
Second That pavilion for the housing
Of tuberculous patients be constructed on
the grounds of the hospital, and admins
tered as part of that institution.
In making these recommendations, DR..
Darlington pointed out that "there can be
no doubt that the establishment of the
camp was very necessary move in cam
paign of education" and "it has probably
served the purpose for which it was
erected" "The daily cost of maintaining
each patient at the tuberculosis camps
he says, sis unusually high, and under the
present circumstances $50 few patients) it
will be almost impossible to reduce it to
fairly economical figure
In advising pavilion in connection with
The hospital, DR.. Darlington urges that it
include provision for patients in advanced
stages of the disease. In the beginning of t.,
The campaign against tuberculosis in this
COUNTRY, attention was first given to sana-
,oria for the cure of those in the early :
stages of the disease because there was r
more hope of curing them. This was the ,
natural and the humane thing to do; but
Is the work advanced, it became more and !
more clear that while this method cured
many, it did not reduce the number to be t
'ured, and that if progress was to be made !
n the elimination of the disease, attention i