Summary Of The Prevention Of Consumption By Malcolm Carlosis

The spread of tuberculosis in society changed the way medicine was approached to a more scientific focus. The disease also shifted the idea that the sick should not be helped to one more focused on community. Malcolm Morris calls for a “crusade against tuberculosis” in his article titled “The Prevention of Consumption.” In the article, Morris focuses on the way tuberculosis is transmitted, action by public authorities, sanatoriums, and the help for all people as ways to combat tuberculosis. This crusade is an example of how tuberculosis changed the way medicine was thought of and brought it into a more scientific focus and shifted the idea of curing an individual to a community at large.
Before medicine as it is known today was created …show more content…
“All this, however, satisfactory though it be as far as it goes, is directed only to the prevention of the conveyance of the disease from animals to man. As regards to the prevention of its communication from man to man, action by public authorities is at the present time only tentative and experimental.” Authorities used advertisements and legislation to help spread the notion of better sanitary conditions. Slogans such as “‘Don’t spit,’ ‘Fresh air promotes health,’ and ‘Flies carry disease’” were used in newspapers, billboards, and streetcars to quickly spread the motion to increase hygiene in the cities. In addition to advertisements, authorities put in place different legislation to educate the public. Morris writes “that this diminution in the prevalence of consumption is directly related to improvement in hygienic conditions is, to say the least, strongly suggested by the fact that the first considerable fall in the death rate from that disease coincides with the sanitary awakening which marked the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria.” Because of this movement to sanitize cities, the Committee on Health of Glasgow created “Hints About the Prevention of Consumption.” This document along with the “gospel of health” stated five specific rules to be followed to combat tuberculosis. “(1) The general sanitation of towns, including drainage of subsoil and abundant …show more content…
“The bacillus of tuberculosis finds, indeed, the most favourable conditions for its existence in the squalor of crowded slums, in the foul atmosphere of dusty workshops, in close courts and alleys, and in damp, dark dwellings where the sunlight never penetrates, and where there is no through ventilation.” There is a need for sanitation of the environment in the slums to help prevent the spread of tuberculosis. There is also a need for sanatoriums for the poor. Morris states that in order to fully prevent tuberculosis “what is needed is a sufficient supply of such sanatoria for poor tuberculous patients, where they can be isolated, so as not to be a danger to those about them, and where they may be placed in the best conditions for recovery. Vast sums of money have been subscribed for this purpose in Germany, and a number of sanatoria have been established” These needs reflect the ideals of the sanitary movement’s notion of general sanitation.
The spread of tuberculosis in society led to the discovery of how tuberculosis is transmitted, different actions that public authorities took to prevent the disease, the creation of sanatoriums, and a more community based approach for prevention in helping all people of different social classes. These points were reflected in Malcolm Morris’ “The Prevention of Consumption” and each represented the old and new ideas of how diseases are spread