Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the prevention of consumption / by Arthur Ransome. 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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![[Excerpt from Vol. IX. of the Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain.] anxtarg |itstxtitte 0f ^xmt ^ntmx. Congress at Bolton. ON THE PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION. LECTURE TO CONGRESS, September 22nd, 1887, By Arthur Eansome, M.D., F.R.S. When I was asked to deliver a lecture before the Sanitary- Congress at Bolton, I felt some little hesitation in bringing before it the subject of the Prevention of Consumption. The prevention of disease is indeed the aim of all sanitary refonners, and I had little doubt as to the acceptability of an address aiming, with any likelihood of success, at the prevention of a disease of such importance as consumption. But this was just the point at which some misgiving would creep in, and the question would arise as to whether there was sufficient evidence of the preventability of tubercular disease, as to justify me in bringing the subject before the members of this great Institute. I think there is, but before venturing to bring my views before this meeting, I thought it well to ask for the permission of vovir council. This permission has now been freely given to me, and I must therefore, proceed to defend my thesis as well as I am able—and lay before you the reasons for my faith, and my grounds for thinking that this fell disease, the scourge of England as it has been called, may reasonably be called preventable, and by what means it may'be prevented or at least be limited in its range. I need not dilate much upon the magnitude of the task before us. About 70,000 persons die every year of tubercular disease in England and Wales, and as the average duration of the disease is now about three years, this means that there are](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22302451_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
