A Consumptive Sanitarium

Why One is Asked For at Ann Arbor

The Reasons Set Forth by a Committee of the State Medical Society

Ann Arbor is liable to have a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis established here in connection with the medical department of the University. Representative Denby of Detroit, a Michigan alumnus, has introduced a bill for such a sanitarium and it will probably be located here. A committee of the State Medical Society, of which Dean Vaughan was a member, have set forth the reasons why such an institution should be established as follows: "Tuberculosis is at present the most fatal disease in civilized countries. "At least one-seventh of all men die of this disease. Of the seventy millions or more inhabitants in the United States today, at least ten millions will, unless something be done to prevent it, die from this disease. Most of the deaths from tuberculosis occur between fifteen and thirty-five years of age, or at a time when the individual should be of the most worth to himself, to his family, to his community, and to the state. Thousands of families are not only decimated by this disease, but are impoverished financially by it. The life of the average adult is worth at least one thousand dollars to the state. Over two thousand people die in Michigan every year from this disease. This means a monetary loss to the state of two million of dollars yearly, to say nothing of the impoverishment that results from the disease. "Tuberculosis is a preventable disease. It is caused by a bacillus or germ which is present in the expectoration of tuberculoos persons. The disease is spread by the transference of this germ from one person to another. If every consumptive knew how and would disinfect his sputum, the spread of the disease would be greatly lessened. The number of cases would be corespondingly decreased, and the death rate from this disease would promptly fall. In a sanitorium those suffering from this disease would receive instruction in the methods of disinfecting the sputum and would be taught the necessity of attending to this matter. Such instruction cannot be thoroughly given by means of printed directions. The patient needs to live for awhile under conditions such that compel his attending to the disinfection of his sputum. In this way and in this way only can proper instruction be given. After receiving such instruction, the consumptive may again mingle with his family without danger of the spread of the disease. A sanatorium would then be a school of instruction which would diffuse knowledge to those in need of it and whereby hundreds of lives would be saved annually. "Tuberculosis in its early stages is a curable disease. Statistics in German and English sanatoria show that from twenty-five to forty per cent of initial cases of this disease can be arrested and practically cured. With a properly constructed and equipped sanatorium, change of climate is not necessary. One of the most successful sanatoria from the treatment of tuberculosis in Germany has an altitude of six hundred feet above the sea, and there are many places in Michigan in which this altitude is greatly exceeded. In fact, there is scarcely any place in the state where it is not equaled. The average length of time necessary to arrest tuberculosis when taken in its early stages is less than six months. "The people of Germany are determined to eradicate this disease, and the watch-word in that country today is 'A German without Tuberculosis.' and this can be accomplished. In Germany and German speaking Switzerland there are today thirty public sanatoria for the treatment of this disease and fifty-eight private sanatoria. In these institutions somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand people are being cared for, and these are replaced by others about once in six months. "The state of Massachusetts has had a sanatorium for tuberculosis in operation for several years, and the treatment has proved to be as beneficial in that institution as in the German sanatoria. New York has made large appropriations which are to be expended under a commission for the erection of sanatoria for the treatment of this disease. The last legislature of New Jersey appropriated fifty thousand dollars by means of which a commission has determined the number of cases in the state and have located and purchased a site for a state sanatorium. The bill before the present legislature provides for three hundred thousand dollars to erect a building. The Governor of the state of Illinois recommended the legislature to pass an appropriation for the establishment of such a sanatorium in that state. "Among the poor the care of a consumptive member of a family endangers the lives of the other members, necessitates in some cases that one other member of the family shall take care of the sick, increases the work necessary in the household, greatly augments the expense of living, and under these conditions it is impossible to prevent the spread of the disease. Such a sanatorium would be a place for the cure of the disease and for instruction in the means necessary to prevent its spread. It would not be a home for incurables. "While one-seventh of all men die of tuberculosis, one-third of all those who die during the working period of life die from this disease. "Shall Michigan not provide for the care of the consumptives among her citizens, and shall she not be in the front rank of those who are striving by the aid of science to lessen sickness, prolong life and in every way improve mankind?"