136 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



Organization Society donated $5,000 as the initial gift in the 

 establishment of this institution. 



Mortality from tuberculosis work in Virginia has declined from 

 a death-rate of 167.6 in 1913 to 142.9 in 1920. 



The headquarters of the Virginia Tuberculosis Association are 

 located at 611 Chamber of Commerce Building, Richmond, Vir- 

 ginia, and the executive secretary is Mr. Irving Lewis Spear. 



WASHINGTON TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



The Washington Tuberculosis Association formed in September, 

 1907, as the Washington Association for the Prevention and Re- 

 lief of Tuberculosis, represents the first organized activity against 

 tuberculosis in the Pacific Northwest. The Association has set 

 an example for the neighboring states of Oregon, Idaho, Utah, 

 Nevada and Montana in the steady development of work against 

 tuberculosis. The first few years of work were largely spent in 

 laying foundations and in general education. 



In 1910 a more intensive program was begun and three years 

 later, in 1913, an act was passed as a result of the State Associa- 

 tion's activity, authorizing counties to erect sanatoria for the care 

 of the tuberculous and to employ public health nurses, whose first 

 duty was to be the care and instruction of tuberculous cases. An 

 appropriation of $50,000 was made with this act to provide state 

 subsidies of $3.00 a week (in 1919 raised to $5.00) for local patients 

 of such hospitals. This was one of the earliest state subsidy acts 

 in the country. 



The energetic leadership of the present executive secretary, 

 Mrs. Bethesda Beals Buchanan, who has been with the Associa- 

 tion since 1910, has contributed largely to its present develop- 

 ment. The program has always been educational but has cen- 

 tered about the formation of county anti-tuberculosis leagues and 

 assisting them to secure the establishment of institutions and the 

 county nursing service. As a result of this program there are 

 at the present time in Washington 30 such county leagues. There 

 are 4 county sanatoria, I municipal sanatorium and I private 

 sanatorium. There are 24 clinics and dispensaries operating in 

 connection with the sanatoria or under the Association and leagues, 



