The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-03

of 200 beds IA miles from Paris: two
sanatoria~ (being remodelled) 800
miles from Paris, with equipment,
automobiles and supplies, and one mil
lion three hundred thousand francs in
cash.
Also the American Red Cross has
undertaken the reconstruction and i'm
prOvement of a number of cheap
barracks on the grounds of the large
hospitals in the city of Paris so that
800 more beds now are available for
tubercular patients than were avail
able last summer. The American Red
Cross is adding to other hospitals
not city hospita1s-in Paris, beds and
equipment for 1000 more BEDS and
is now taking steps to secure food,
coal and clothing in sufficient amounts
to provide immediate relief for the
winter for hundreds of destitute pa
tients in homes, whose cases have
been brought to the Red Cross for
relief
But the combined efforts of the
French and the American Red Cross
can do little with the few thousand
beds now available, or possibly avail
able, to check a tubercular scourge
which numbers it's victims by the
hundred thousands. Only a few of
those now stricken may be saved by
the hospital campaign.
The Campaign of Education.
American Red Cross against tuber-
culosis in France is educational A
campaign of of education is going for
ward on what seemsS to be an eff
fective scale. France is giving the
Red Cross every possible official rec
IGNITION and assistance and there is
reason to feel that by educating the
French people in the care of patients
and in measures for preventing the
spread of tubercular infection, an ap-
paIIing epidemic may be averted. The
Rockefeller Foundation is assoclattng
itself with the Red Cross, furnishing
men and money freely to spread in
formation thru France
France is strongly centralized
government An order from Paris af-
fects the whole country. Scientists
were twenty years educating Ameri-
cans to fight tuberculosis, because the
fight had to be carried from one state
legislature to the other. But here the
single necessary authority to do the
work of educating the people is Sc
cured Of course the first thing to be
done in fighting tuberculosis educa-
tionally is to educate the medical pro-
fession. This is hardly needed, but a
odel dispensary has been opened in
Paris This dispensary will take
charge of the tuberculosis of one
reimbursement and have complete
equipment for all social work connect
ed with the care of the sick in their
homes. Dispensaries like this are be-
ing multiplied all over France, as rap
idly as men and nurses and supplies
are available.
Red Cross Institute.
The Rocket eller Foundation is
equipping for the Red Cross campaign
a medical institute near one of the
great hospitals in Paris to give I'M
dergraduate medical students practi-
cal instruction in handling tubercu-
losis and in enforcing measures to
prevent the spread of the disease.
Nurses also are to be educated and
sent to French homes as rapidly as
possible. A moving picture exhibit
is going over France-Such as Amer
lea often has seen-furnished by the
Rockefeller Foundation and directed
by the American Red Cross, present
ing the various problems of tubercu-
losis and child welfare For the two
problems work together. Indeed, the
problem of child welfare in France is
almost as acute as the tuberculosis
problem.
Thousands of children in France
have lived for three years in the war
zone They have grown from baby
hood to childhood under shell fire and
gas attacks. That means living in
cellars and protected places; living
without pure water. with improper
food, without schools, with no open
places in which to play. The French
governm now compels all children
under to leave the firing zone.
Refugees are being esta blished for
these children along the French
front. To those refugees mothers may
! come, and all children up to 8 may
enter. In the refugees is a hospital for
children, with doctors and nurses
trained to handle children's diseases
and to teach mothers the care of chill
| dren.
In supporting the French govern
ment in this task, the American Red
! Cross has taken a keen interest. A