BEGINNINGS 9 



ity to the Health Department of New York city to deal with 

 tuberculosis as an infectious disease. During the legislative 

 session of 1898 and 1899 Dr. Biggs spent much of the winter in 

 Albany fighting these bills and blocking their passage. The 

 opposition, however, continued to be intense, and the feeling 

 aroused in medical circles was extremely bitter. At Dr. Biggs' 

 request the New York Academy of Medicine appointed a com- 

 mittee to consider the entire question. Dr. Edward G. Janeway 

 was president of the Academy at that time, and he and Dr. T. 

 Mitchell Prudden served with others on the committee. Numer- 

 ous meetings of the committee were held. The discussions were 

 bitter and heated. After several weeks the committee reported 

 back to the Academy that they considered the action of the 

 Health Department "inexpedient and inadvisable." The in- 

 fluence of Dr. Janeway and Dr. Prudden prevented the committee 

 from making more drastic recommendations which some of the 

 members favored. 



On February 13, 1904, the New York City Board of Health 

 finally passed a resolution favoring compulsory reporting of tu- 

 berculous disease in all forms, but it was not until January 18, 

 1907, that tuberculosis was declared a communicable and in- 

 fectious disease, and as such reportable in all instances (Sect. 

 153, Code of 1907). New York's example of reporting tuber- 

 culous cases to the Health Department has since been followed by 

 most of the principal cities of the Union. 



To the city of Boston, the home of Dr. Bowditch, belongs 

 the honor of having established the first free hospitals for the 

 treatment of consumption. The Channing Home, named after 

 the celebrated Unitarian divine, was founded in Boston in 1857, 

 for the treatment of white women in all stages of pulmonary 

 tuberculosis. In 1861, in Boston, Miss Anne Smith Robbins 

 founded the House of the Good Samaritan for women with ad- 

 vanced consumption who were without means of support. For 

 fifty-nine years this House has been a beautiful home to many a 

 poor dying woman. In 1918, 69 cases were treated. In 1864, in 

 the same city, the Cullis Consumptives' Home, named after Dr. 

 Charles Cullis, was established. This is a hospital for the treat- 

 ment of men and women in the last stages of pulmonary tubercu- 



