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52
as Victoria Park and Brompton, are still more concerned
as the proposed tuberculosis dispensaries will to a certain
extent compete with their out-patient departments.
On this point there appears to be a good deal of
misconception on the part of the Chest Hospital
authorities. In my opinion there is plenty of room for
both institutions. The Chest Hospital is mainly concerned
with the restoration to health of such phthisical
persons as apply to them for treatment, whereas the
staff of a Tuberculosis Dispensary deals more directly
with methods of prevention; its officers look for the
seeds of disease amongst persons who have been in
contact with known cases of Phthisis, many of whom
are quite unaware that they have anything wrong with
them until this is revealed by the examination of the
Tuberculosis Officer. It will also be the duty of this
officer to deal with and rectify faulty habits and home
conditions, of which the Hospital Medical Officer can
have no cognizance. Moreover, the true functions of
the Hospitals will in no way be interfered with, as cases
requiring treatment in the wards must still be referred
to them.
The National Insurance Act includes in its provisions
a gigantic scheme having for its object the
treatment and ultimate abolition of tuberculosis, and
one of the inducements held out by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer to get medical men to work under the
Act was the promise that they would be entirely relieved
of the treatment of all forms of tuberculosis. His idea
evidently was that cases of this disease require treatment
by specially trained physicians. The intense