Discussion on the co-ordination of measures against tuberculosis / opened by G.A. Heron. : and, The voluntary notification of phthisis in Brighton : including a comparison of results with those obtained in other towns / by Arthur Newsholme.
- George Allan Heron
- Date:
- 1907
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Discussion on the co-ordination of measures against tuberculosis / opened by G.A. Heron. : and, The voluntary notification of phthisis in Brighton : including a comparison of results with those obtained in other towns / by Arthur Newsholme. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![If sanatoria are to be provided in abundance, as they ought to be, people must have nothing to say to those who propose to spend £250 or more for each bed in a sanatorium, in addition to the cost of the land. The outside price of each bed ought not to exceed, in my opinion, £100. Of what I called our greatest forces in the fight against tuberculosis, there yet remain three to be considered, men and women, money, legis- lation. I am strongly of the opinion that private efforts to help on the fight are an essential part of our forces. For instance, it would, I believe, be difficult to overvalue the work of volunteer helpers, willing to go as visitors among the poor, and to tell them what to do when illness comes to their homes. The official visit from the authorities, whether medical or not, is one thing; a very different thing is the visit of the man, and still more so of the capable woman who offers help in time of sore illness, but represents no authority, but only that touch of kindness which makes the whole world kin. Sufficient help given in this spirit by tactful educated men and women would be one of the most powerful of our forces in the struggle with disease. As to legislation: The fight with tuberculosis is far too grave and too great a matter to be thrown altogether upon the people unaided by the Government. It is among the highest interests of every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom, or for that matter in the whole British Empire, that this preventable disease should be prevented. There is no one who is quite safe from its infection. But to try to eradicate tuberculosis means, among other things, to spend money. I submit that this money [if not all, at least much of it] should be taken out of national taxation, and the Government is the only power by which this can be done. As I have already pointed out, we greatly need our efforts in fighting tuberculosis to be co-ordinated. We are here, I understand, to suggest some plan of co-ordination, or at least some plan by which a definite scheme of co-ordination may be laid before the country. All the points I have mentioned, and many more besides, ought to be carefully weighed and fitted into a large scheme, whose main features should be, I venture to suggest, a central body for the whole United Kingdom, in close touch with numerous local bodies, all working to the same end, the extermination of tuberculosis. The central body should consist of statesmen who are not mere party politicians, of lawyers, doctors, and last, but far from least in importance, of men of business capacity and training. [For Discussion on this Paper, see page](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2241843x_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
