Norwich bulletin., 1912-04-16
CONNECTICUT SHOULD WORK
 TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
Urged by pr. 8. J. Maher in Relation
 to the White Plague.

Before the Conference of Charities and Corrections st Waterbury on Mon day night Dr. s. J. Maher of New Haven spoke on the Tuberculosis Problem. He said:
 In the short time allotted to me I cannot go into all these subsidiary problems of tuberculosis. Important many of them are, but not so import ant at this moment as the need that you, leaders of thought and fathers of sanitary legislation in Connecticut, should realize the fact that our pres ent knowledge of tuberculosis is far from being complete. It is OUT duty, of course, to warn the people of the dangers that threaten them, but our warnings ought to be given without unnecessary shouting. It is not desir- able to cause 8 panic. A panic can do more damage than the danger that caused it. The hysterical fear of the consumptive that has taken possession of part of the pSBblic during these last years would be laaghable if it did not have such serious results in the way of interference with the erection of hos pitals and sanatoria in suitable places, and in the way of increasing the an guish of the patients themselves One great good that the members of this orga nization could accomplish in the next year would be the spreading through the state a knowledge of the facts that the careful tuberculosis pa tient is about the least dangerous member of the community, that a tuberculosis sanatorium Is about the safest place in the county to visit, and that, in spite of the close daily inter course between the members of the staq and the patients at hospitals for tuberculosis, no case Of consumption was ever known to be caught by the attending physician or nurse.
 Te solve the tuberculosis problem, therefore, we need more knowledge od the disease. This knowledge can be acuuored by the combined investiga lions of workers in the laboratories and workers in the field. And of these the investigations of the workers in the field are now the most important; and the workers in the field ara they who know the sick and desire to help them-dcctors and nurses, priests and parsons, manufacturers and labor lead CTS, insurance men and settlement workers. directors of hospitals and sanatoria-and all others who, beSi des position and capacity have love of their neighbors.
 It won't do to feel that we can leave
 
 this matter of searching for the truth about tuberculosis, and the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to the peopei or government of some other state or some other nation There IS no good reason why Connecttcu' should not have the glory of finally solving the tuberculosis problem. Why not Connecticut, instead of Prussia. or Illinois? Why not Connecucut, in stead of Belgium or Bulgaria? Why not, indeed? Here we are, a, compact eager community of a million people proyerbiaIly inventive, who already have to our credit the solution of many of the great governmental and me 1 chanioal problems Why not add tt our list the solution of tile tubereulo- sis prohIeTn7 Too difficuIt2 Its difficult lies do not discourage the best minds of other lands. Tn the old days diff fculties were a stimulus to the lead CTS of Connecticut. Are we of weaker 1 fgbre?