SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11, 1891. 



THE CURE OF CONSUMPTION.' 



No words of mine are required to impress upon you the 

 great importance of thii subject, to express the intense inter- 

 est that is universally taken in it, or to point out the far- 

 reaching influence its public establishment will have upon 

 scientific investigation. But it is, perhaps, necessary for me 

 to say that 1 fully recognize the grave responsibility that 

 rests upon any one who makes the statements I am about to 

 make, and that I am completely justified in accepting that 

 responsibility. Perhaps it may be within the recollection of 

 some of those present that at the Birmingham and Manches- 

 ter meetings of the association in 1886-87 I read papers giv- 

 ing the results of a series of investigations on consumption 

 and chest types. I showed in the former paper that con- 

 sumption was directly produced by the conditions that tend 

 to reduce the breathing capacity below a certain point in pro- 

 portion to the remainder of the body, and contended tbat it 

 could be both prevented and completely recovered from by 

 the adoption of measures that were based upon that interpre- 

 tation of its nature. In the latter I adduced evidence that 

 proved that the size and shape of the chest after birth solely 

 depended upon the conditions to which it was subjected, that 

 there was the same relationship between the size and shape 

 of the other parts of the body and the conditions to which 

 they were subjected, and that this law obtained in the animal 

 and vegetable kingdoms. The research, as a whole, showed 

 that there was a complete series of types that had on tiie one 

 hand extreme consumption, and on the other the finest type 

 of health, directly produced by the conditions to which they 

 had been submitted. And I referred to the immense impor- 

 tance of the issues that were raised, both from a practical and 

 scientific point of view. 



At that time the evidence was mainly derived from experi- 

 ments, although I had some most valuable and significant 

 practical experience, and I found the general opinion was 

 that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to 

 practically apply that knowledge. Since then, however, the 

 practical evidence of the relationship between conditions and 

 types of chest has been irrefutably established at the Poly- 

 technic. By the application of that knowledge in the ordi- 

 nary routine of daily life, the members of the Polytechnic 

 Physical Development Society, although engaged for many 

 hours daily in all sorts of trades and occupations, some of 

 them under very unfavorable conditions, have shown how 

 greatly the chest girth, its range of movement, the vital 

 capacity, and the power of inspiration and expiration can be 

 increased. Last year, at Leeds, I gave the measurements of 

 one hundred members. If you will refer to the report you 

 will find the average increase of the chest girth was If inches, 

 that of the third class being Ij inches, the second 2g inches, 

 and the first class 3| inches. At a subsequent examination 

 for the society's gold medals and certificates the first three 



' An address by Godfrey W. Hambleton. M.D., president ot the Polytechnic 

 Physical Development Society, at the meeting ot the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. CardiCf, August. 1891. 



members had obtained an increase of 6|-, 5, and 4f respec- 

 tively, and although some of our best members are constantly 

 leaving the Polytechnic, and new ones joining us, I am glad 

 to say there has been a further average increase of one quarter 

 of an inch in all classes. Many of the members are engaged 

 in the trades that have a high rate of mortality from con- 

 sumption, and not a few of them would have long been in 

 the ranks of the consumptives had it not been for the efficacy 

 of the directions given them by the society, — that is to say, 

 the practicability and certainty of the measures that are nec- 

 essary to secure the prevention of consumption have been 

 fully demonstrated. 



Whilst one part of the work has been practically applied 

 at the Polytechnic, the practical application of the other has 

 been equally successful in the amelioration and, where the 

 disease was not too extensive, the cure of consumption. I 

 cannot enter into medical details here, but I may state that 

 by the cure of consumption I mean the possession and ap- 

 pearance of sound health, natural breathing from base to 

 apex, a well-formed and fairly developed chest, a good range 

 of movement, and vital capacity that have stood at least a 

 twelve months' test. The cases that were referred to at Man- 

 chester in 1887 as having completely recovered remain well, 

 and those that have subsequently recovered went through 

 last winter without giving the slightest indication of a relapse. 

 There has been no relapse in any of these cases of cure, and 

 no failure. Up to the present the mortality of all the cases 

 has been under ten per cent, and has been limited to those 

 who were most extensively diseased, and who were, in fact, 

 in extremis. There are others who have derived great bene- 

 fit, and some of them will ere long take their places in the 

 ranks of the cured. One of the latter has stolen a march 

 upon me. He presented himself for life assurance, was ac- 

 cepted as a first-class life, and obtained a reduction in his 

 premium He is unquestionably well, but he would not 

 allow me my twelve months' test. There is not a sufficient 

 number of cases to compare with the statistics obtained at 

 the Polytechnic, but I may say the increase in the chest girth 

 ranges from 1^ inches to over 4 inches. We have chest girths 

 of over 38 and 39 inches, the range of movement varies from 

 3 to 6 inches, and the vital capacity greatly exceeds in some 

 cases Hutchinson's standard of health. 



I have now shown you that the results that had been ex- 

 perimentally obtained have also been equally well obtained 

 in the practical application of that research, that each part 

 of the investigation confirms the other, and that they together 

 form a complete and harmonious whole. Consequently I have 

 also shown you that we now have before us and within our 

 grasp the real cure for consumption, that we can effectually 

 prevent its production, and that by united and continuous 

 action in both directions we can, ere long, practically remove 

 this curse of civilization from our midst. 



What steps are to be taken to secure the great benefits of 

 this advance in knowledge ? Let me, in the first place, re- 

 mind you that consumption is a disease of civilization, a part 

 of the process of evolution by which an adjustment is made 

 between the body and the work it has to perform under the 

 ever-changing conditions of advancing civilization, by the re- 



