The effect of tuberculosis institutions on the value and desirability of surrounding property / by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis.

  • National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (U.S.)
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The effect of tuberculosis institutions on the value and desirability of surrounding property / by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    19/72 (page 17)
    should take; and even the most careless have this drilled into them to such an extent that they will be more careful than they would otherwise be, with- out such training. I consider a well-conducted sanatorium the least dangerous of all places for people to live. It is far less dangerous than the average hotel or boarding house. No better testimony as to the safety of an institution could be found than in the attitude of life insurance companies as indicated in the remarks of H. V. Pettit, M.D., Superintendent of the Ottawa Tuberculosis Colony, Ottawa, 111.* As far as I know there have been no cases of tuberculosis which have re- sulted from residence in or near this institution. In fact, there have been several of our officers who have taken out life insurance with one of the most conservative companies in this country and have been advised by the life insurance company that, other things being equal, their risk is better than that of the average person. From Martin F. Sloan, M.D., Superintendent of Eudowood Sanatorium, Towson, Md. I believe the wide spread fear of tuberculosis patients and institutions to be not only unjust but unfounded. The public should be willing to believe that sanatorium directors fully appreciate the gravity of the situation and therefore do every thing to minimize contagion. They should also know that 80 per cent, of those having tuberculosis and knowing it, will exercise prophylaxis. It is the person who has the undiagnosed tuberculosis lesion that is to be feared. From Montgomery E. Leary, M.D., Superintendent of the Monroe County Hospital, Rochester, N. Y.: A well-conducted sanatorium is the safest place to live in. You know what you have; on the outside you do not know who you are meeting or what they are doing. With properly educated patients and rules which are enforced, there are more dangers on the street than in the sanatorium. From Edward L. Trudeau, M.D., Medical Director, Adiron- dack Cottage Sanitarium, the first of its kind in America, opened in 1884: If employees don't develop the disease while in the institution, how could the sanatorium possibly endanger anyone outside of its gates. To my knowledge, no healthy employee has developed the disease while in our institution. From J. W. Coon, M.D., Superintendent of the State Sana- torium, Wales, Wis.: It may be worthy of note that among the two hundred persons who have been employed at the sanatorium since its opening, by far the larger proportion of whom were young men and women, at the most susceptible age for contracting tuberculosis, not one, so far as I am aware, has ever developed tuberculosis, although one or two had already contracted it before coming to the institution. It seems to me this speaks well for the care exer- cised in preventing the spread of the disease from the institution. * See page 36.