The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-16
THE TUBERCULOSIS PROBLEM
BY DR. STEPHEN J. MAYER Address At The State Conference of Charities And Correction At Waterbury Last
 Evening

II ou' dHo now ne got Tn, ana Wnetner he entered in his own uniform or in a disguise; we must not be blinded by old theories, or by somebody's teaching In the last century; we must look for Facts only. A prominent European specialist said to me not long ago,
 For most of my professional life have been giving my best thought and must say that for the last ten years, I have been unlearning many things I had previously believed about the disease.'"
 Perhaps you will say that these in- vestigations that suggest are work proper for Rockefeller Institutes and Carnegie Laboratories, and not for laymen, or nurses, or individual phy- sictans, no matter how willing or obs servant they may be. Undoubtedly, some Of the work could be done best at these institutions. if the directors were interested; but. as matter of Tact, none of these large institutions has been of any use in the fight against tuberculosis. The big things In medicine have always been done by individuals, not by institutions-fre- Quently in spite Of institutions.
 one of these tremendously endowed institutions would find out for us what happens to the tubercles and their contained tubercle bacilli. when in a case of tuberodlous peritonftis, recov- cry takes place as the result of the simple operation Of cutting into the abdomen and draining off the fluid in which the tubercles had bathed. It would help us if one of these institu- tions would seriously undertake to find out the relationship between the tubercle bacillus and other acid fast bacilli. It. would help us if one of these institutions would study with out prejudice the origin of primary renal. or vesical, Or ovarian tuber- culosis, especially in children. r,.. But the facts-aIways the facts showing the probable relation of given case of consumption to another case of consumption; showing the probable relation of certain occupa- tions or trades to certain groups of cases of consumption in certain towns or villages: or showing the probable relation of certain unhygienic local habits or practices to the occurrence of consumption among those who in dulge in such habits. these facts, and hundreds of others of similar interest and importance are usually beyond the reach of the most highly endowed re- search laboratories, but they are read by wide-awake health officers, by su- per1ntendents of town. county and state institutions, by food inspectors, by factory inspectors, by tenement house inspectors. and by all men and women who have such close touch with sociological problems as have tho members of this State Conference of Charities and Correction.
 Until the present era of the public care of the tuberculous, all the new knowledge of the disease was aequir- ed and disseminated by the practising are taking from the family physician most of his tuberculous patients, and segregating them in Sanatoria and hospitals
 It is only fair that we listen to him when he insists that those in charge of the new sanatoria and hospitals shall not only supply the community with all the new information concern ing the occurrence of the disease, that they can find among their gathered sick.
 In our State Sanatoria, this work of investigation has been under way for some months and medical superin- tendents and their assistants are showing an interest in 1t that prom ises much for the future. The day is probably coming when the labora- toroes attached to the State Sanato- ria, now used solely for the study of the cases of tuberculosis admitted to these institutions, will make for all the physicians of the nefghborhood, the sputum and other tests necessary for diagnosis in eases of tuberculosis. In that day, these labora tories will be clearing houses for much of the scientific tuberculosis data of coun- ty. and their records and equipment will be of inestimable value to stu dents of the disease. Who should be the agent of the community delegated to receive and investigate these reports on tubercu- losis from all the busy sociological and medical workers of the state? Theoretically, it would seem that the State Board of Health was the prop CT place for these reports to go; but in my judgment the selection of the State Board of Health would be a grave mistake. It would give a chill to the enthusiasm of every investiga- tor in the state. Not that I have against the ability of the members of the State Board of Health, or it's gra- ciOuS and capable secretary, but the work of the State Board of Health is generally considered to be the receiv- ing, and filing of records of births, work to do. but the public has for gotten that. And to make this state wide pursuit of the tubercle bacillus productive of the great things of which it is capable, the pursuers must be able to feel at all times that their
 
 prompt and sympathetic consideration that there is very-much- alive board of strategy behind them.
 In my opinion, it is to the State Tuberculosis Commission that these reports of our tuberculosis scouts should go. And that is my opinion, not because Dr. Knight Is member of that Commission, not because MT. GunShannOn is a member of that Commission, and not because I am a member of that Commission. es- teem my fellow members highly, and myself not meanly; but my opinion would be the same if the Tuberculo- sis Commission were made up say, of men who are now on the State Board of Health.
 No man with a modicunn of brain and human sympathy ttould be many days on the State Tuberculosis Com mission without feeling a personal in- terest in every bit Of news concern ing the progress of the crusade CT than he ever experienced before, but greater than would be possible to any other official whatsoever. No body else, so we'll as he, could realize how terrible and constant drain on the earnings of the people and the funds of the state was caused by this disease. Nobody else so we'll as he could realize the misery Of the sick, the long-drawn agony of the dying, and the ecstatic joy of the cured.
 Nobody so we'll as he could appre- ciate the weight of the great burden of charity that the directors of Gay lord Farm and Wildwood Sanatoria have cheerfully borne now these many