12 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



such an extent that in 1905 the American Sanatorium Associa- 

 tion was organized, and held its first meeting at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York city, on December ist 

 of that year, with seventeen members present. The object of 

 the Association is "to promote the professional and social rela- 

 tions of the members and to advance the knowledge of sana- 

 torium treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis." 



It was decided that the Association should consist of active and 

 honorary members. All physicians engaged in active sana- 

 torium work, who are also members of the National Tubercu- 

 losis Association, are eligible for active membership. Honorary 

 members are nominated by the executive committee, consisting 

 of the president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer. Later 

 on the privilege of membership was extended also to non-resident, 

 visiting, and consulting physicians of sanatoria or tuberculosis 

 hospitals, so that the membership which started with nineteen 

 in 1906, is now over 225. 



At the first meeting, Doctors Vincent Y. Bowditch, of Boston, 

 Lawrence F. Flick, of Philadelphia, and Lawrason Brown, of 

 Saranac Lake, were elected president, vice-president, and secre- 

 tary-treasurer, respectively. Doctors Bowditch, Flick, and E. L. 

 Trudeau were made life members in recognition of their work in 

 establishing and propagating sanatorium treatment in the 

 United States. 



In 1906 the first municipal sanatorium for early cases was 

 established at Otisville, N. Y., by the New York City Health 

 Department, under the direction of Dr. Hermann M. Biggs. 

 In 1904, when our Association was organized, there were in opera- 

 tion in the United States 96 sanatoria and special hospitals for 

 tuberculosis. 



The first dispensary class in the United States devoted ex- 

 clusively to the treatment of tuberculosis was inaugurated in 

 1894 by Dr. Edward J. Bermingham, of New York city, at the 

 New York Throat and Nose Hospital. Nine years later, on 

 October 30, 1903, Dr. John H. Huddleston established a class for 

 tuberculous patients in connection with the general dispensary 

 of the Gouverneur Hospital, thus creating the first tuberculosis 

 dispensary under the auspices of the City Department of Bellevue 



