THE STATE TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATIONS 105 



MINNESOTA PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION 



One of the first expressions of tuberculosis activity in Minne- 

 sota was in 1901, when at the instance of a group of physicians, 

 headed by Dr. H. Longstreet Taylor, the legislature passed an act 

 providing for the establishment of a State Commission on Tuber- 

 culosis, one of the earliest bodies of its kind. The Commission 

 was created primarily for the purpose of studying the advisability 

 of a state sanatorium, which was opened in 1905. 



The Associated Charities of Minneapolis at about the same time 

 began to take a considerable amount of interest in tuberculosis, 

 largely because of its contact with families in which the disease 

 was present. In 1903, the Anti-Tuberculosis Committee of the 

 Associated Charities of Minneapolis was formed and began a work 

 which has been of great significance not only to Minnesota but to 

 the entire country. 



The Minnesota Association for the Prevention and Relief of 

 Tuberculosis was organized in 1906, but for two years it remained 

 in a somewhat dormant condition. In 1908 it was reorganized 

 and an executive secretary was secured. 



In July, 1914, the association was again reorganized under the 

 name of the Minnesota Public Health Association although its 

 program was and has been very largely a tuberculosis one. 



As a result of the activities of the original state association, in 

 1913 the legislature passed a law providing for state aid in the 

 erection and maintenance of county tuberculosis hospitals. The 

 stimulus of state subsidy, together with the supervising oversight 

 accorded to the State Commission as a result of the subsidy, has 

 greatly helped in the establishment of county and district hospi- 

 tals. At the present time hospitalization is available for practi- 

 cally every section of the state. There are 14 such local institu- 

 tions besides the state sanatorium, with an aggregate bed capacity 

 of 1,164. 



The Association has developed 87 local affiliated organizations. 

 There are a very large number of public health nurses working in 

 cooperation with the county hospitals and in other ways. 



The death-rate from tuberculosis in Minnesota has declined 

 from 109.1 in 1910 to 89.5 in 1920. 



