194 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



sum is very small indeed to pay for medical attention, nursing, and 

 loss of earnings by the patient and his family. This item foots up 

 to $80,000,000 annually for the United States, and when added to 

 the loss due to deaths brings the total to $380,000,000. 



Possible Financial Saving through Preventive Measures. — All 

 thoughtful students of the subject will agree that one-half of the 

 present illness and loss of life due to tuberculosis is readily prevent- 

 able. Fisher places the ratio of preventabiHty of pulmonary tuber- 

 culosis at 75 per cent. Using the smaller figure, it is evident that by 

 education of children and the public, together with the other means 

 well known to the medical profession, it would be possible to save 

 one-half of $380,000,000, or $190,000,000, per annum. Here we 

 have taken no account of the misery, the pain, and the loss of parents 

 nor the loss of education to orphaned children. All of the vast sum 

 of money named could be saved by the expenditure of a few millions 

 of dollars for education and for enforcement of health laws. Event- 

 ually, with a persistent campaign, the disease might become as rare 

 as bubonic plague and typhus fever now are in civilized communi- 

 ties. The sum of $190,000,000 is fifteen times the cost of operation 

 of all the state universities in the country, and it is more than twice 

 the annual output of gold for the United States. 



Expenditure of Public Moneys for Suppression of Tuberculosis. — 

 For a number of years the more progressive state boards and city 

 commissioners of health in the United States have furnished circulars 

 describing the best means for prevention of tuberculosis. The use 

 of public funds for such purposes has never been questioned. Some 

 of the states have already estabhshed sanatoria and others have 

 plans for such establishment. If there be justification for main- 

 tenance by the state of the harmless insane, of imbeciles, the blind 

 and deaf, there is also for taking care of incipient cases of tubercu- 

 losis, A cured consumptive, well and strong, able to support himself 

 and a family, is certainly of more value to the state than a trained 

 blind man or an imbecile. If the state spends money in educating 

 the young, it can well spend a little more in keeping these educated 

 young people from dying at an early age. Those who are thus saved 



