Editorial September 30, 1905 Issue

A Manly Protest

ARCHIBALD McLELLAN

THE extent to which mankind has been impressed with the fear of disease is shown in the address of Sir Henry C. Burdett, of London, at the hospital superintendents' annual conference in Boston. We copy the following from The Boston Herald's report of this conference:—

"Let us protest." said Sir Henry Burdett, "against this running amuck at everything that is believed to be consumption. I have already seen a case in a family where a daughter who suffered from the disease has been put into a separate room and the family has looked at her through a window.

"The result is that the poor girl, who is the daughter of an officer in the army, is now longing for death. Surely, people of education, at any rate, ought to have more common sense and more humanity. What shall we do in regard to this abominable, unwomanly, and unmanly fear of what is called the infectiousness of tuberculosis?... I believe that many poor people have already been done to death by their friends because of this panic fear of consumption."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

The Whole Gospel