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145
Under the provisions of the National Insurance Bill, Sanatorium
benefit is defined as treatment in Sanatoria or other Institutions of
persons suffering from Tuberculosis or such other diseases as the Local
Government Board, with the approval of the Treasury, may appoint.
The Sanatorium benefit will be administered by the Local Insurance
Committees, who have to make arrangements with persons or Local
Authorities having the management of such Institutions, for the treatment
therein of insured persons. Grants will also be made to erect
and maintain Sanatoria.
It is obvious that the Act cannot lead to much extension of
Sanatorium provision for another 18 months at the earliest, but as
this provision increases, our work in the direction of detecting early
incipient cases among the poor will become more profitable than at
present, because it will gradually become more and more possible to
get such cases put under suitable conditions for cure. The " Sanatorium
Grant " of the Act and the Sickness Insurance provisions are
useful contributions towards the difficult problem of helping the poor
consumptive. But the time must be far distant when the expectations
which have been raised that all or most cases of consumption among
the poor will be suitably dealt with in Sanatoria or in Hospital, can
be realised; and if in the meantime the Act has the effect of causing
any relaxation in our local endeavours to extend the measures of
dealing with the disease, or in the withdrawal of support to the existing
voluntary agencies for relief, it will have done more harm than
good for some years to come.
The Royal Commission on Human and Animal Tuberculosis
issued its final report in July, 1911. The essential identity of Tuberculosis
in man and cattle, and their inter-communicability under certain
conditions, had been testified to in previous (Interim) reports, in
which the large amount of experimental work recorded finally disposes
of the contention that the risk to man of infection from cattle is nonexistent
or of very minor importance. The Royal Commission, after
most elaborate researches and experiments, has unanimously agreed