The decision to serve children

THE     STATE     TUBERCULOSIS    COMMISSION.  11 A  REVOLUTIONARY  DOCTRINE. Until  the  last  few  years,  it  was  generally  accepted that  human  tuberculosis  was  simply  a  contagious  disease and  that,  when  an  adult  developed  symptoms  of  tubercu- losis, he  did  so  because  he  had  recently  been  infected by  inhaling  the  germs  of  tuberculosis  fresh  from  the breath  or  sputum  of  somebody  else  who  had  tuberculosis. During  the  last  few  years,  this  theory  has  received  some severe  blows,  and  now  it  is  a  question,  and  a  very  impor- tant question — how^  much  longer  it  can  stand.  The  first blow  w^as  struck  by  Calmette  of  France  and  his  followers, who  claimed  that  they  had  proved  that  pulmonary  tuber- culosis could  not  be  caused  by  the  inhaling  of  the  germs  of the  disease,  but  that  pulmonary  tuberculosis  could  be caused  and  always  was  caused  by  the  taking  of  the germs  of  the  disease  into  the  stomach  and  bowels, whence  they  were  carried  by  the  blood  to  the  lungs.  The second  blow,  or  rather  the  second  series  of  blows,  was struck  by  a  host  of  authorities  in  various  countries,  nota- bly by  Von  Behring  in  Germany,  Fishberrg  in  America, and  H.  Battey  Shaw  of  England.  According  to  these  au- thorities and  their  followers,  practically  all  civilized  hu- man beings  are  infected  with  tuberculosis  during  child- hood, and  practically  all  tuberculosis  in  adult  human  be- ings is  the  result,  not  of  recent  infection,  but  is  the  belat- ed developments  of  the  infection  of  childhood.  This  rev- olutionary theory  is  far  from  being  generally  accepted, but  its  mere  discussion  has  had  the  effect  of  forcing  us  all to  realize  the  importance  of  making  more  serious  efforts to  control  the  tuberculosis  of  children. MERIDEN  SANATORIUM  FOR  CHILDREN  ONLY. In  order  to  keep  Connecticut  in  the  lead  in  this  new movement  for  the  saving  of  children,  we  have  decided  to transform  the  State  Sanatorium  at  Meriden  into  a  sana- torium for  children  only.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sana- torium era,  Connecticut,  like  all  other  communities  re- ceived tuberculous  adults  and  children  without  discrim- ination in  all  her  sanatoria.  As  the  number  of  children increased,  and  it  became  necessary  to  consider  the  estab- lishment of  schools  in  the  sanatoria,  it  was  decided  to send  the  girls  of  school  age  to  Meriden,  and  the  boys  of school  age  and  all  the  infants  to  Hartford.  According  to our  new  plans,  the  plans  adopted  this  year,  all  the  chil- dren suffering  with  pulmonary  tuberculosis  will  be  sent  to