AND ENVIRONMENT 



37 



TABLE XV. EXPERIENCE OF BENENDEN SANATORIUM, 



ENGLAND 



(no account apparently taken of those who died under treatment). 



Patients discharged. 



According to another school of medical thought, the 

 main advantage of sanatorium treatment is the teaching 

 of sanitary habits and the segregation of the highly 

 infectious cases. If the sanatoria have produced good 

 in this direction, certainly no marked evidence can be 

 seen in the death-rates during the sanatorium period, for 

 the old fall has not been maintained. Is it not indeed 

 cruel to go to the public with a glowing account of the 

 curative effect of sanatoria, when after all you are con- 

 scious that the segregation or leper-house idea is what 

 is at the basis of your movement ? 



But has the theory that ' the sanatorium is a school of 

 hygiene ' any real basis in fact ! Probably yes, where 

 the middle and upper classes are concerned; but hardly 

 any whatever when the working classes are dealt with. 

 Let the Local Government Board Report on Glasgow, 

 referred to on p. 7, be consulted in this matter. Most 

 of the sanatorium patients return to homes where real 

 hygiene is impossible. A large percentage of such 



