TUBERCULOSIS AND A NATIONAL " HEALTH CONSCIENCE."
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In the short paragraph on this subject in, your last issue you have summarized the whole science and philosophy of preventive medicine. May I, as a layman, add a few words on the cure, as distinguished from the prevention, of the white man's scourge ? I have been connected with various institutions making a special study of consumption, most recently with the City of London Hospital for Diseases
, of the Heart and Lungs at Victoria Park. And I think it can be stated as the general opinion of the medical staffs that their greatest difficulty in dealing with tuberculosis h that of getting into touch with the patents while the disease is in its earliest stages. My own observation satisfies me that incipient phthisis is easily arrested, and, given subsequent healthy conditions, arrested permanently. But the characteristic optimism of con- sumptives deters many of them from taking steps to eradicate the disease until it has reached a dangerously advanced stage. This obstacle is not likely to be removed until a knowledge of hygiene has become universal, i.e., until the nation 'has developed that " health conscience " which, as you rightly declare, " can do more than the whole medical profession to prevent disease."—I am, Sir, &c., ALFRED SMITE. 53 Sydenham Park, S.E. 26.
Previous page
