Papebs ox Medicixe, PrBLic Health axd Sanitatiox 75 



SOME COMMEXTS OX THE PEESEXT STATUS 

 OF TUBEECULOSIS 



"Walter Gelvix Baix, St. John's 

 Hospital. Speixgfield 



I believe that your Secretary -«-as of the opinion that 

 one's army experience must always give one some new 

 ideas, when he asked me to appear before you with a 

 paper. It certainly is the belief that I have acquired 

 a clearer vision of the tuberculosis situation as a result 

 of my army service, that leads me to comioly with his re- 

 quest to read a paper on a subject which has been so 

 much discussed and written about. 



The greater part of my army sei*^dce was spent at the 

 U. S. Army General Hospital'Xo. 8 at Otisville, X. Y., 

 the seaboard hosj^ital where the overseas chest cases were 

 received and treated. 



In general, my experience has given me a much more 

 hopeful feeling toward the tuberculosis outlook than I 

 had previous to entering the service. 



I think that during the early months of our entrance 

 into the war, the entire medical profession was much mis- 

 led by the gloomy prophecies of our tuberculosis special- 

 ists. These men, basing their estimates on the reports 

 of the Allied Countries, foretold the return of thousands 

 of our American boys, victims of tuberculosis ac- 

 quired in France. They pictured these victims scattering 

 through our to^Tis and villages, each a menace to his 

 community, a carrier and spreader of the germs of the 

 dreaded white plague. 



It later appeared that the only basis for these false 

 prophecies was the reports of the French on the situation 

 in France. Particularly misleading was the report of 

 Professor Landouz^', who first voiced this apprehension 

 "^-ith his estimate of 150.000 cases of tuberculosis in the 

 French army. This mif ortunate exaggeration was T\-idely 

 quoted and quite generally accepted as representing the 

 danger to French military efficiency from this source, and 



