CONSUMPTION BEATEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3315, 6 September 1911, Page 7

CONSUMPTION BEATEN.

A WORK CURE THE REMEDY

Ail experiiiieht in tuberculosis treatment known as the “work cure,” is being tried with success at the sanatorium at Frimley which is connected with the Bromptori Hospital for Consumption, London.

The treatment is based on the curative effect of graduated, labor. It is found, the director of the institution says, that patients undergoing the open-air treatment make better pror gress when they have to do certain amount of work each day than when they are allowed to lead aimless lives. Practical use has been made of this observation and a systematic table of work suitable for different stages of the disease has beeen drawn up. ■ The work is divided into six grades. It varies from the lightest- labor given to those who -are unfitted for active exercise—sewing, making mats, etc.—to the really heavy work of trenching, mixing concrete, and felling trees. Short walks are considered to be light labor for those who can get about, and are followed -as progress is -made- by such easy garden employment as picking up wood, carrying baskets of mould, and watering plants. FROM LIGHT TO HEAVY WORK. From these occupations the patients are gradually led on to the- heavier tasks of using a small shovel, grass shears of a light hoe, eventually progressing to the still more strenuous work of digging broken ground and mowing lawns. When, after the most careful regulation of his work, a patient attains the ambitious post of a chopper of trees, the completion of his “cure” is well within sight. Those who have successfully passed through the lighter grades of work at Frimley carry out the late stages of hard physical labor without shirking and with the greatest benefit to tlieir health. Since- the institution of the “graduated labor” system 1200 tons of mould, 6and and gravel have been carried an average distance of 200 yards, while more than 130 trees have been felled and cut up. The patients, moreover, have been engaged in the construction of a laTge reservoir, in connection with which 1000 tons of sand have been mixed and used and 5000 tons of sand have been moved a considerable distance. In addition to this they have cleared and brought into cultivation over three acres of land and have painted the buildings and kept the grounds in proper condition.

"WOMEN WORKERS.

The women, too, do all manner of outdoor work, but .tlieir tasks and tools are smaller than those of the men. As a rule the patients work about four and a half hours a day, and before they are considered fit to be discharged, they are put to work at their customary trade or occupation for six hours a day for three weeks. 45 PER CENT. APPARENTLY CURED.

The net results of the graduated labor system at Frimley are as follows: Out of 419 consumptive patients in the last year 192 have shown a complete ar, rest of the disease, and 195 have presented very considerable arrest of the disease. Thus SO per cent, have derived great benefit from, the treatment and 45 per cent, have apparently been cured. Sixty-eight patients, advanced in the disease, showed only moderate improvement. Generally speaking, the cases under treatment at this sanatorium arc selected, and those who are about to enter the final stages, or who are in a feverish, exhausted condition, are excluded from the application of the outdoor system. It is believed that this system, if undertaken in the United States, would solve the vast problem of tuberculosis there, which is greater in proportion than in any other country oil the globe.