CHAPTER VII 

 THE FRAMINGHAM DEMONSTRATION 



NO HISTORY of the tuberculosis movement in the United 

 States would be complete that did not chronicle the 

 origin, development and results to date of the unique 

 Framingham Community Health and Tuberculosis Demonstra- 

 tion at Framingham, Mass. For over four years, with the co- 

 operation of its citizens, Framingham has been developing a 

 program to show to the world the effectiveness of the methods of 

 control of tuberculosis. 



It may not be amiss as a matter of historical interest to state 

 here how the Framingham Demonstration originated. To do 

 this we must go back to the year 1908, when the interest of the 

 officers of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the 

 tuberculosis problem was first aroused. The late Dr. John Henry 

 Huddleston was mainly responsible for a meeting to which all 

 the New York employees of the Metropolitan Life Insurance 

 Company and its officers were invited. The occasion was the 

 tuberculosis exhibition in the Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, which had been brought from Washington, D. C, 

 largely through the efforts of Dr. Alfred Meyer of New York. 

 Later it was also sent to Philadelphia through the efforts of Dr. 

 Lawrence F. Flick. It had attracted great throngs of visitors dur- 

 ing the Tuberculosis Congress in the capital city and in Philadel- 

 phia, but the crowds which visited the exhibit in New York were 

 even greater. Various organizations, corporations and schools 

 visited the museum in bodies, and each meeting was addressed by 

 one or two physicians specially interested in tuberculosis. The 

 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's meeting at which Mr. 

 Haley Fiske, now the president, then the vice-president of the 

 Company, presided, was attended by no less than 1200 agents and 

 clerks of the Company. Officers and employees listened atten- 



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