Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/684

 660 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of the department records for the first time in the history of the city, and the better and more substantial binding of these records.

II. SOME PRESENT NEEDS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.

Allusion has been made to the frightful condition of the con- tagious-disease hospital on North Brother Island, and of the much-needed reforms already accomplished by the Department of Health under Commissioner Lederle. A word should also be said regarding the further need for improvement in the city's hospitals for contagious and infectious diseases. Chief among these, perhaps, is the pressing demand for a camp or sanatorium for consumptives something which every large city should provide free of charge to those persons who are afflicted with this lingering disease and who are too poor to afford the luxuries of a private institution. Indeed, the necessity for such a munici- pal sanatorium is imperative. Every year it is estimated that thirty thousand people are afflicted with consumption in the city of New York, two-thirds of whom are in need of help from sources outside of their own families. Is it right for the munici- pality to let them go uncared for, when it has been clearly proved that this disease is not hereditary, that it can be detected in the early stages, and, if taken in time, can often be checked or wholly cured ? In the opinion of one of our most prominent medical men in the country, the reasons for its continuance are threefold :

First, the people at large do not understand the ways in which the disease is spread and are ignorant of the simple measures for its avoidance ; second, many are careless or indifferent to the risks of sanitary uncleanliness ; third, the facilities for the care of the poor and the friendless who are stricken are utterly inadequate. Thus the larger proportion of the victims of tuberculosis are hopeless in sight of the hope which science holds out to all. 1

We have seen how the Department of Health, in co-operation with the Charity Organization Society and other private bodies, has sought to remedy the first two causes for the spread of tuberculosis, and how, mainly as a result of their united efforts, the number of deaths in proportion to New York's ever-growing

'See Charities, March 21, 1903, p. 291.