Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/214

 Mrs. Henshaw that her husband had tuberculosis, the statement would probably have been hotly contradicted. By this method of approach the social worker had avoided an issue.

"There is no sanatorium at Mount Huron," she now explained, "and there is no other place there where a person with consumption can go."

"Well, if he can't go to Mount Huron," returned Mrs. Henshaw, "he won't go to the Mercy Hospital"—this being the institution to which the doctors had tried to induce Mr. Henshaw to go.

Having learned Mrs. Henshaw's plan and having by inference at least obtained from her the recognition of its impossibility, the social worker began to prepare the way for inducing Mrs. Henshaw to encourage her husband to enter an institution.

"What about the children?" she began. "Are you going to risk exposing them to tuberculosis? You wouldn't expose them to measles or scarlet fever, and tuberculosis is a much more dangerous disease."

"That's not true!" exclaimed Mrs. Henshaw, raising her voice. "He's no more a danger than the other patients, and the hospital discharged them without asking any questions."