THE HOSPITAL ANNEXE FOR CONSUMPTIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7812, 3 May 1905, Page 2

THE HOSPITAL ANNEXE FOR CONSUMPTIVES.

r Uhe relief of suffering humanity is a cau.se which' appeals. «to most of us with touching force, and such an appeal is hardly ever in vain. Perhaps there is no disease which is so well known, and the effects of which cause such sorrow and suffering, as that of consumption In the United Kingdom alone nearly 40,000 persons a year succumb to its ravages, a imich greater mortality being found among males than females'. Statistics, however, convey some comfort in the fact that since 18fif> there has been a steady decline in the death rate per million from this cause.from 2118 to l'A'2'.i. The disease has been the subject of patient, protracted, and i-xhaiistive study by those who ire Im'si qualified to undertuke this -eienlific work, but up to the present, though many remedial agents have been lighted upon, no cure has been d iscovered. A t the same time streuuous eO'orls Ua>e bceu made to

educate public opinion, and to stimllate individual iniative by means of Liistrib'uting' information as to the. modes of diffusion of tuberculosis', and measures for its prevention. Appar;ntly the chief points that have- been ittoined are confined to elYnrls towards pievention, and to n judicious '.reatment of the disease in its incipient stafios mi as to nm.st its • progress. In cons-erpicnco of Professor Koch's i.s erlion at the International Congre s on Tuberculosis that there was"" a scientific difference iK-tween liuuian and bovine tuberculosis, a Uoyal Commission, consisting of eminent men in the world of scienliCc research, was appointed to inpii e into the matter, and in dune last published an interim report to the effect that experiments had demonstratol that tubercle of human origin could give rise in the bovine animal to tuberculosis identical with ordinary bovine tuberculosis. This was an important discovery and one that may lead to far leaching result'. Meanwhile the open-air treatment of consumptives has j-tendily been forcing itsylf into favour by reason of the beneficial results which have, on the whole, attended its adoption. The number of sanatoria in which this treatment is the main feature is steadily increasing, and the anne.e to the New Plymouth Hospital will shortly be added to the fist. The enthusiastic way in which the project, when once mooted here, was taken up is evidenced by the raising of ii7oo for the building—a sura which is 50 per cent in excess of that anticipated by «r. Valintine, who is taking a keen and actie interest in this important movement. The result is that New Plymouth is- credited with being tht first town in the colony to have an annexe for consumptives estalrl lshei in connection with a public hospital That it will prove successful in tn< work for which it was instituted is wo are sure, the earnest hope of al the subscribers, and"it is only right that tho building should be openec with fitting ceremony. Empire daj has been chosen for the function, anc it would have been difficult bo so lect a more suitable date. There is every reason to believe that the. example set by New Plymouf* will b< followed by othor enlightened centre; in the colony, and those who hav ( in any way contributed towards tlw initiation and carrying out of tht project may well be congratulated or, the noble example they have set n their efforts to fight one of the rtiosl direful diseases to which the humar