The Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians ami ol
the Royal College of Surgeons and Sir William Broadbent— in fact the heads of the medical profession—have sent to the Press a most important communication on the prevention of consumption, and the Association which is being formed with that object. The disease is, they say, the most fatal to which mankind is subject, being responsible for one death in every ten. It has gradually become definitely known that tuber. onions disease " is not inherent in the constitution, but is communicated indirectly from pre-existing cases, and the principal methods by which it is spread have been identified." Tuberculous disease is therefore preventible. The objects of the Association "are the dissemination .2 information, the arousing of public feeling as to the necessity for defensive measures, and the provision of sanatoria, which will bt both preventive and curative, for the open-air treat- ment of consumption." The object is a most important one, but we trust that the doctors will take great care that the public does not get it into its head that consumptives are to be treated like lepers. That is quite unnecessary, but if this erroneous idea is not checked it may spread widely and bring misery into countless families.
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