Lteitnrii 
 
 THE FIGHT ! 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 TUBERCULOSIS 
 
 FOR 
 
 COMMUNITY AND 
 HOME PROTECTION 
 
 YOURS AND MINE; 
 HERE AND NOW 
 
Work of the Champaign County Anti-Tuberculosis Health 
 
 - 1 ■ ■ 
 
 League from its Origin to the Present Time. 
 
 An association of citizens of Champaign county, mainly of Urbana 
 and Champaign, has undertaken to do everything possible, at the expense 
 of its members, to protect the people of the county, and especially, thus far, 
 of its two principal towns, against disease and death by tuberculosis. 
 
 While this enterprise has evident charitable features, it is primarily a 
 movement for the protection of the community. Tuberculosis is a strictly 
 contagious disease, acquired only from others already affected with it. Its 
 propagation can be prevented and the disease may ultimately be stamped 
 out, locally at least, by measures well understood and practically available. 
 It kills about seventy-five persons a year in Champaign county—persons of 
 all callings and classes, and most of them in the prime of life. It is a disease 
 of comparatively slow progress, and each death is preceded by a long 
 period of decline, suffering, and heartrending anxiety for the patient and 
 his friends. 
 
 The distinguished political economist, Professor S. I. Fisher, of Yale 
 University, has worked out a money valuation of the life of the average 
 American who is subject to death by contagious disease, to the effect that 
 such death is equivalent to a community loss of $1700. If the citizens of 
 this county are average Americans, the death toll unnecessarily paid to 
 tuberculosis on this basis is the equivalent of $127,500 a year, equal to 
 5 per cent interest on an investment of two and one-half millions. This 
 estimate would necessarily be many times increased if account were taken 
 of the various expenses and the loss of time resulting from the illness of 
 the tuberculous in this county. But this economic loss is insignificant 
 on any scale of values applicable to human welfare, when compared with 
 the misery, th orrow, and the destruction which this terrible disease 
 brings in its train. 
 
 A mitigation of this curse of tuberculosis infection is the immediate 
 purpose, and the cause of the existence, of the Champaign County Anti- 
 Tuberculosis Health League. This is only the first part of its program, 
 however, for when it has done all in its power against this common and 
 destructive malady, it intends to work for the control of the other great 
 contagious diseases prevailing in this community; and it does not expect 
 to disband until it has brought to bear the results of science and the power 
 of sustained, organized effort for the general betterment and protection 
 of the health of all the people of this county. 
 
 The association has at present over four hundred members. It has 
 raised since its organization, November 10, 1911, $1906, and has applied 
 
DIRECT t»ir 
 
 this sum to the local work. These funds have come from 554 ordinary 
 membership fees of $1.00 each; fees of sustaining members at $5.00 each, 
 amounting to $570; one life membership at $50; the proceeds of the sale 
 of Red Cross Christmas Seals, amounting to $445; and receipts from mis¬ 
 cellaneous sources of $287. It has kept at work from the beginning a vis¬ 
 iting nurse—Dr. Carrie Noble White succeeded by Dr. Maude E. Nichols— 
 at a salary of $75 a month. It has provided a highly successful course of 
 popular lectures by several leading authorities on tuberculosis. It is now 
 preparing to establish a free dispensary for the treatment of needy 
 patients; and it should ultimately be able to provide a fit place where 
 advanced cases of tuberculosis may be cared for, as may be necessary, in 
 a way to protect the community from danger of contagion and to give to 
 the patients themselves a fair chance of recovery. 
 
 It is the office of the visiting inspector to search out all cases of tuber¬ 
 culosis requiring advice or assistance; to detect unsuspected cases in time 
 to check and cure the disease before it has reached the infectious stage; to 
 teach those affected by it how to care for themselves so as to make them¬ 
 selves harmless to their families and associates; to give advice, supervision, 
 and assistance to the families of tuberculous patients necessary to their 
 own protection, and to the proper care of their invalid members; to see 
 that all infected houses and premises are thoroughly fumigated, especially 
 after the removal or death of a tuberculous patient; and to take ail possible 
 measures to instruct the ignorant, to encourage the despondent, to stim¬ 
 ulate the negligent, to warn those in danger, and to correct those who pur¬ 
 sue mistaken courses because of wrong ideas or bad advice. This great 
 and difficult service is done with rare devotion by an experienced woman— 
 at once a medical graduate and a trained nurse—who has the tact, intel¬ 
 ligence, and kindness to make her way into all situations, to meet all 
 emergencies, and to win the attachment of friends and the gratitude of 
 the helpless. 
 
 It is no part of her duty, however, to take medical charge of cases as 
 a physician, and there are many doubtful or suspected cases in need of an 
 accurate diagnosis, as well as many who know themselves to be tuber¬ 
 cular but are unable to pay for proper medical attendance. It is for these 
 that a free dispensary is required, and for lack of this much of the work ^ 
 of the visiting inspector is of little avail. Furthermore, the most advanced ^ 
 cases are at once the most dangerous, and the most difficult to care for 
 properly. There are several such cases now in Urbana and Champaign, so 
 situated that it is simply impossible to give them in their homes the kind 
 of service and assistance necessary to their own comfort, or to the pro¬ 
 tection of their families and friends. It is inhuman for an enlightened 
 and wealthy community to leave them to die in the lingering agony of this 
 dread disease, certain that they are not only doomed themselves but that 
 they are insuring a like fate for those nearest to them. It is also suicidal 
 folly, for these are the cases that most endanger the lives of all of us. It 
 is to eliminate this danger and to reduce this misery to a minimum that 
 we must finally have a sanitarium. 
 
Convinced that in this progressive county of 52,000 inhabitants, and 
 especially in these two cities of nearly half that number, many more than 
 our present membership of four hundred and fifty persons will approve 
 of our plans if they understand them, and will wish to share in our under¬ 
 taking when they see its importance and are convinced of its success, the 
 Anti-Tuberculosis League is now sending out its agents to remind former 
 members of our needs and to invite others to unite with us in maintaining 
 and developing our work. Our visiting inspector is averaging nearly a 
 hundred and fifty calls a month, on sixty families one or more members 
 of which are known or suspected to be tuberculous. The educational and 
 protective value of her work is inestimable; and she is entitled to our 
 grateful appreciation and our hearty support. For a slight addition to 
 our expenses we can establish a free dispensary which will immensely 
 increase the influence and usefulness of the League. Our greatest present 
 need is a larger membership, to continue year after year. The movement 
 appeals to the friendly, to the charitable, to the public spirited, to those 
 who love their families and would protect them, as well as to those who 
 would take intelligent care of their own lives and health by helping to 
 lessen the danger of contagious disease in the surrounding community. 
 
 CHAS. B. JOHNSON, President. 
 
 E. J. TOWNSEND, Vice-President. 
 
 W. W. EARNEST, Secretary-Treasurer. 
 
 CHAS. H. WATTS, Ch. Com. on Finance. 
 
 S. A. FORBES, Ch. Com. on Education and Pub¬ 
 licity. 
 
 W. E. SCHOWENGERDT, Ch. Com. on Sanita¬ 
 tion and Medical Assistance. 
 
 FRANCES NORTH, Ch. Com. on Membership.