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it is earnestly to be hoped that the near future will see
it an accomplished fact. By instituting a system of
voluntary notification of consumption, the Council
would have most of the existing cases of phthisis
brought to their notice, and a selection could be made
from amongst them of cases suitable for sanitorium
treatment, either on account of the early stage of the
disease giving reasonable hopes of a cure, or, in more
advanced cases, where the home conditions of the
patient were such as to threaten other members of the
family with the danger of infection.
In these latter cases where a cure cannot be
hoped for, a few weeks treatment and instruction in
the methods for preventing the infection of others,
that every consumptive person should have full knowledge
of, are of immense value.
It is a matter now of common experience that
those who have undergone sanatorium treatment, come
back to their ordinary life with an enthusiasm for carrying
out the principles they have been taught, which
is almost unparalled, and considering that 8 or 10 such
cases per bed per year could be so treated, it would
not be long before the influence of the institution
would make itself felt in the locality from which the
patients were drawn.
In order to secure suitable cases for cure, the
earliest possible diagnosis of the condition is essential.
Early recognition of the diseases is often extremely
difficult, and in very early cases it is impossible without
the aid of bacterial examination of the patients