420 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



expecting to continue in private practice, as did the health officers 

 in most of the states at that time. After he had forgotten a few 

 important appointments in private practice he concluded that 

 state medicine had his real affection, and should become his sole 

 pursuit. 



In 1898 Dr. Fulton sought and secured the appointment of Dr. 

 William H. Welch as a member of the State Board of Health. Dr. 

 Welch became president of the Board of Health, and still retains 

 that office. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Maryland 

 State Board of Health should have led a campaign for the enact- 

 ment of the first registration law requiring reporting of living 

 cases of tuberculosis, a law which has been a model for practically 

 every state in the Union; or that with such backing Dr. Fulton, 

 and his assistant, Dr. Marshall L. Price, should have planned and 

 realized the first tuberculosis exposition, held in Baltimore in 

 February, 1904, where the first action in regard to the formation 

 of the National Tuberculosis Association was taken. 



When it was definitely decided to hold the Sixth International 

 Congress on Tuberculosis in this country, the general committee 

 having the arrangements for the Congress in charge in casting 

 about for a man who could serve as secretary-general, selected Dr. 

 Fulton. This arduous task he held from 1906 until about a year 

 after the close of the Congress in 1909. The success of the Con- 

 gress itself, mention of which is made in other pages of the vol- 

 ume, is sufficient testimony to the ability of Dr. Fulton. The 

 reputation that he gained in this connection brought him into 

 such world-wide prominence that he was selected as secretary- 

 general of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and 

 Demography held in Washington in 1913. 



During the war Dr. Fulton served in the Medical Reserve Corps 

 with a commission of Lieutenant Colonel. At the present time he 

 is again serving as secretary of the State Department of Health 

 of Maryland. 





