Tuberculosis and the child

Abstract

TUBERCULOSIS is the great scourge of child-life. I t desolates the home, ravages the school, and ruins much of the best efforts of the State. Tuberculosis is the most fruitful agent in the production of the debility, disease, crippling and death of our most promising sons and daughters. A n d if, as we say and believe, the desolations of this plunderer may be prevented, then we are under the most solemn and urgent obligations to struggle unceasingly for the final conquest of the Captain of the Children of Death. The physical vigour, intellectual stability, and economic efficiency of the citizens of to-morrow depend upon the health and equipment of the children of to-day. Yet we continue slow to recognize the peril which threatens us, and are willing to remain content merely to experiment with weapons and machinery instead of entering with heart and mind into a campaign, which, however long, arduous, and expensive, shall safeguard our homes and offspring from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, the sickness that destroyeth in noonday. The problem of the protection of infancy, childhood, and youth from tuberculosis is a national one, in the solution of which every man and woman should take a part. As the late Lord Lister well said : If the prevention of tuberculosis is to be effectively carried out, the ~ general public must aid the physician and surgeon in the endeavour. Every unit in the State must have a stake in this enterprise. W e suffer inclividually and collectively, and collectively and individually we must be ready to sacrifice personal, professional, and temporary interests, in order that the highest good may be made possible for our children. In what must necessarily be a condensed and incomplete statement of the .case for the tuberculous and the tuberculously-disposed child, I wish to limit consideration as far as possible to the medico-sociological and ~nedico-educational aspects of the question. I t will be wise, however, ,to draw attention to some few clinical facts and pathological views. A scientific basis must be found for our philanthropic endeavours and measures for national medical service, if we are to attain the greatest