452 
CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS. 
ditions of the poor. I am also convinced that these efforts, 
which must be promoted in every way, will lead to a consider¬ 
able diminution of tuberculosis. But a long time must elapse 
ere essential changes can be effected in this direction, and much 
may be done meanwhile in order to reach the goal much more 
rapidly. 
If we are not able at present to get rid of the danger which 
small and overcrowded dwellings involve, all we can do is to re¬ 
move the patients from them, and, in their own interests and 
that of the people about them, to lodge them better ; and this 
can be done only in suitable hospitals. But the thought of at¬ 
taining this end by compulsion of any kind is very far from me , 
what I want is that the consumptives may be enabled to obtain 
the nursing they need better than they can obtain it now. At 
present a consumptive in an advanced stage of the disease is 
regarded as incurable and as an unsuitable inmate for a hospital. 
The consequence is that he is reluctantly admitted and dis¬ 
missed as soon as possible. The patient too, when the treat¬ 
ment seems to him to produce no improvement, and the expenses, 
owing to the long duration of his illness, weigh heavily upon him, 
is himself animated by the wish to leave the hospital soon. 
That would be altogether altered if we had special hospitals for 
consumptives, and if the patients were taken care of there for 
nothing, or at least at a very moderate rate. To such hospitals 
they would willingly go ; they could be better treated and cared 
for there than is now the case. I know very well that the exe¬ 
cution of the project will have great difficulties to contend with, 
owing to the considerable outlay it entails. But very much 
would be gained if, at least in the existing hospitals, which have 
to admit a great number of consumptives at any rate, special 
wards were established for them, in which pecuniary facilities 
would be offered them. If only a considerable fraction of the 
whole number of consumptives were suitably lodged in this way, 
a diminution of infection and consequently of the sum-total of 
tuberculosis could not fail to be the result. Permit me to re¬ 
mind you in this connection of what I said about leprosy. In 
the combating of that disease also great progress has already 
been made by lodging only a fair number of the patients in 
hospitals. The only country that possesses a considerable num¬ 
ber of special hospitals for tubercular patients is England, and 
there can be no doubt that the diminution of tuberculosis in 
England, which is much greater than in any other country, is 
greatly due to this circumstance. I should point to the found- 
