APPENDIX I 473 



By order of Surgeon General Gumming, authorized by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, a Section of Tuberculosis was organ- 

 ized in the U. S. Public Health Service at Washington under the 

 direction of Surgeon F. C. Smith, not as a substitute for the Divi- 

 sion of Tuberculosis, which has several times been recommended 

 by the National Tuberculosis Association, but only to meet 

 urgent relief problems related to the care and examination of 

 disabled veterans. Tuberculosis Sections were established as a 

 part of each of the fourteen district offices, the chiefs of which 

 undertook the task of securing from their field medical officers 

 adequate chest examinations and accurate diagnoses. During 

 the first two years approximately 1,000,000 physical examina- 

 tions of all kinds were made. 



To train medical officers in diagnosis and treatment, to open 

 new hospitals, many of which were of temporary and unsatis- 

 factory construction and unfavorably situated, to facilitate ad- 

 missions, provide a proper standard of treatment, facilitate 

 discharge when treatment was completed and prevent unneces- 

 sary transfers from hospital to hospital, were large problems. 

 By December, 1920, more than 15,000 tuberculosis patients had 

 been discharged from hospitals and nearly 10,000 tuberculous 

 were under treatment, of which 5,300 were in Public Health 

 Service hospitals, 219 in Army and Navy hospitals, about 500 

 in those belonging to the National Homes for Disabled Volun- 

 teer Soldiers, and the remainder scattered in contract hospitals. 

 The task grew rapidly. One hundred and ninety dentists and 

 about 2,000 trained nurses, reconstruction aides and dietitians 

 were added to the corps. Dispensaries were established and 

 follow-up care of tuberculous patients living at home was under- 

 taken, thousands of standard packages of sputum cups and paper 

 handkerchiefs being distributed. 



Practically every large service tuberculosis hospital has become 

 a continuous training school for physicians. The one at Oteen, 

 N. C., has conducted a special summer school for nurses as well 

 as medical officers. Several hundred physicians not stationed in 

 hospitals have been given the short course in diagnosis at various 

 points in the field. A report of the schools of instruction con- 

 ducted in the Eighth District, which includes the States of Wis- 

 consin, Illinois and Michigan, was published in Public Health 



