Evening star., 1934-04-04
Unified Effort Necessary.

who, like him, are laboring in behalf
OF the community's health and we'll
being, will welcome the District of
Columbia Medical Society's vigorous
determination to assist in whatever
steps are necessary to make a really
effective crusade against the ravages
Of tuberculosis.
At the root of many of the defioien-
cies found in the city's work of pre-
vention, early diagnosis and treatment
of tuberculosis lies the same old story
of arbitrary elimination Of recon-
mendations for expenditures-by the
Board of Commissioners, by the Bu-
reau of the Budget and by Cong ess.
But one reason for the lack Of public
funds the sinews of war against
tuberculosis and of other well-organ-
lied public health measures-is un-
doubtedly the failure adequately to
press for those funds. Arbitrary cuts
in the appropriations for the Tuber-
culosis Hospital in the name of econo-
my. while idle surplus revenues were
piling up in the Treasury, brought
DR.. A. Barklie Coulter, then the chair
man of the Medical Society's Tuber-
culosis Committee, before the Senate
Subcommittee on Appropriations last
April. Washingtonians will remember
his dramatic statement:
I come to state the case of 600
persons who will die in the District
Of Columbia during 1888. Most of
these persons will die from neglect,
though the death notices will state
that the cause was tuberculosis.
The District has never even
culosis cases adequately. either from
the quantity Of beds allotted, or the
quality of service given-appropria-
tions even during time of plenty were
a farce There is at Gallinger
Hospital now what is written up in
the reports by the superintendent OF
the hospital. a tuberculosis unit
lacking sunshine, sanitation, equip
ment and the proper type of tuber-
culOsis supervision. From the front
one looks toward the Congressional
Cemetery-to the right lies the Gre
matorium, cheerful reminder of
mans destiny.
In its recent report the newly en-
larged and reorganized subcommittee
on tuberculosis of the medical society
states with commendable candor that
while the Health Department is to
the members Of the Medical Society
of the District Of Columbia, have
not, however. interested ourselves in
the problem; we are to be censured
collectively and individually"
The subcommittee findings that
methods for the discovery, contro.
and treatment of tuberculosis are
woefully inadequate" are to be fol-
lowed by continued, positive action
on the part of the society to bring
the source of trouble to the atten-
ton of responsible authorities. In a
radio speech last hight Surgeon Gen.
Cumming Of the Public Health Serv-
ice pointed out two specific failures
which should be remedied:
First, the municipal sanitorium for
adults is only half large enough and
many patients with open tuberculosis
.. continue to live on in their homes
while waiting their turn for admis-
sion. Second. there is lack Of
health supervision that might prevent
infection Of young children in these
homes which they share with infected
adults.
There Is no single agency which
can do more effective work than the
medical society. Some of its distin-
guished members have long since iden-
titled themselves with the work of
that lay organization. the District of
Columbia tuberculosis Association
which has so long and so we'll
labored in behalf Of prevention and
treatment of the disease, and to which
the medical society's report attributes
more useful anti-tuberculosis activi-
ties than any other agency here. ,
What is apparently needed now more
than anything else is unified and
determined effort on all fronts to dis
cover the cause of existing conditions
and apply the remedy to them. The
medical society's report and contem-
plated action are encouraging indica-
tions that the effort is to be made.