CHAPTER I 

 BEGINNINGS 



THE history of the National Tuberculosis Association and, 

 in fact, the history of the anti-tuberculosis movement in 

 America, may well be recorded in terms of the work done. 

 A mere chronological summary of efforts would be of little gen- 

 eral interest did it not show the spirit of the men and women who 

 have contributed to the development of the campaign against 

 tuberculosis in the United States. It is this spirit that makes the 

 history worth recording. Tuberculosis had been known chiefly 

 because of its pestilential character and because of the apparent 

 hopelessness of its prevention or cure. This was a condition not 

 peculiar to the United States; indeed, not more than two gen- 

 erations ago it was the prevailing conception of the disease 

 throughout the world. 



In this introductory part the history of the campaign against 

 tuberculosis will be sketched under two phases of its develop- 

 ment first, those early pioneer efforts in treatment, prevention, 

 and organization that led up to the formation of the National Tu- 

 berculosis Association ; and second, the kaleidoscopic changes in 

 the health map of the country which have been made during the 

 last fifteen years under the able leadership of the National Asso- 

 ciation. 



Among the earliest American physicians who made pulmonary 

 tuberculosis a special study must be mentioned Dr. Benjamin 

 Rush, who published his "Thoughts Upon the Causes and Cure 

 of Pulmonary Tuberculosis " as early as 1783. Regarding Rush's 

 ideas on the treatment of tuberculosis, Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs 

 speaks as follows: 1 



"His treatment of consumption, as of most diseases, depended upon the 

 state of the patient's system; if in the plethoric state, *'. e., with high bounding 



1 "Some Distinguished American Students of Tuberculosis," Johns Hopkins 

 Hosp. Bull, vol. xiii, Nos. 137, 138, 1902. 



3 



