1 82 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



been trained and forces them into occupations which call for less 

 physical strength. It is a notorious fact that tuberculosis is common 

 among hotel waiters and that many of the persons engaged in domes- 

 tic service are doing such work because of physical weakness in part 

 due to the disease. A few years ago the occupation of ticket clipper 

 on elevated railroads was recommended to consumptives as com- 

 bining light work and out-door air. Soon there was an overplus of 

 applicants for all available positions. In Colorado, California and 

 all other "health resort" states there is a great crowding of profes- 

 sional ranks by men who are forced to reside in the West for reasons 

 of health.^ 



There is no other human ailment which so promotes the business 

 of the patent-medicine manufacturer and, to a less degree, that of 

 the medical quack. Those persons wax and grow fat on the money 

 of the ignorant consumptive who does not know that hygienic treat- 

 ment under competent medical supervision will alone cure him. The 

 continued existence of quackery, with all its degrading influence upon 

 the public and its injury to the medical profession, depends to a 

 considerable extent upon the prevalence of tuberculosis. 



Many sufferers from tuberculosis originally became susceptible 

 to the disease through the use of alcoholic drinks which, when 

 taken to excess, weaken the system, and permit invasion of the body 

 by the tubercle bacillus. On the other hand, men with the disease 

 are often led to intemperance by a desire to forget their troubles. 

 Thus theie is a reciprocal relation between alcohol and tuberculosis. 

 Disease leads to dissipation and dissipation brings on disease. 



The Prevalence of Tuberculosis. — About one-ninth of the mem- 

 bers of the human race die of tuberculosis. In England and Wales 

 it causes over 60,000 deaths annually, and in the United States 

 probably more than 150,000. It is always the commonest of the 



' Since writing the above, I have read carefully a paper on "The Question of Employment" (for the 

 tubercular) in the Transactions of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, sixth 

 annaul meeting, Washington, D.C, May 2-3, igio. The author of the paper. Dr. A. M. Forster, in advo- 

 cating farm work for sanatorium patients, notes incidentally the disturbance of conditions by shifting of employ- 

 ment. He calls attention to the fact that the number of employments in cities suited to consumptives is 

 small, mentioning laundry agent, collector, etc. The average tuberculous patient who returns to work after 

 a "cure" at a sanatorium must take employment at a lower wage than he is accustomed to, hence must have 

 less desirable home surroundings and possibly insuflScient food. 



