806 
PBOCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
hospital fare, though it is desirable to vary the monotony of the daily 
food to stimulate the lack of appetite of the consumptive. All these 
things, as 1 shall explain later on, can be obtained easily in a country 
sanatorium which grows them itself, and thus to a certain extent can 
be made self-supporting. There is yet another consideration which 
renders city hospitals unsuitable for the reception of people suffering 
from tuberculosis of the lungs. The hospital of a large town must be' 
and is usually built in close convenience to the city, and is destined' 
mostly for acute affections which require confinement to bed. The 
space is naturally limited, and not at all sufficient for patients who 
require plenty of fresh air, which t hey are able to obtain in a sanatorium. 
T have dwelt more fully on the disadvantages connected with a 
city hospital in the treatment of consumption because some little time 
ago it was suggested to set apart the Diamantina Orphanage in 
Brisbane as a special institution for tuberculous patients If this idea 
were carried into effect the improvement, as far as the consumptive 
inmates are concerned, would be very small. 
The institution of sanatoria is one of modern times. Dr.- 
Herman Brehmer, of Goerbersdoif, in Prussian Silesia, was the first 
who, after having proved in his “ Doctor- Dissertation ” in 1856 ; 
the curability of tuberculosis of the lungs, suggested a sanatorium' 
under suitable climatic conditions as the most favourable place for' 
successful treatment. After great initial difficulties — the very idea 
of the curability of phthisis excited at the time a great amount of 
distrust — lie succeeded in carrying his ideas into effect, and the 
sanatorium was started in 1859. The number of patients that came 
to it in the first year was very discouraging, but the splendid results* 1 
obtained with those subjecting themselves to the treatment were not 
slow in making proselytes for the sanatorium of Ur, Brehmer, The 
attendance rose by leaps and bounds in the following years: — 
i860, 60; 1862, 101; 1869, 818 ; 1878, 706 ; and the indisputable 
fact that more than 10,000 patients suffering from consumption of 
the lungs have been given back to full health and full work, apart 
from those that have been relieved and improved by the treatment in 
the sanatorium of (3 oerbevsdorf since its inception, makes it our 
duty to record Dr. Brehmer’s name as one of the great benefactors 
of humanity. Since that time numbers of sanatoria have arisen in 
all pails of Germany, Europe, and Northern America, which, however,, 
are nearly all conducted oil the same or similar principles as Dr.. 
Brehmer’s original institution. 
A sanatorium for consumptive patients in Queensland should be* 
different from the European institutions, because we have to deal ill 
Australia with climatic conditions vastly different from those in middle 
Europe. We enjoy here a climate which allows, or rather enforces, an 
out-door existence nearly the whole year through. This is a great 
advantage in our favour, i he idea of great and expensive central 
buildings, which is rendered necessary at home for the purpose of pro- 
tecting the patients against the inclemencies of the weather during 
winter time, can be abandoned. The formation of parks, drives, walks, 
promenades, colonnades, as they abound in Goerbersdorf, Ealkenstein, 
Eavos, and other places, is no doubt very beautiful, but too expensive 
to be thought of if we want to have a sanatorium herein Queensland, 
where there is not the same number of rich people as flock from all parts 
