TUBERCULAR SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17139, 19 April 1919, Page 10

TUBERCULAR SOLDIERS.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING.

MEDICAL EXPERTS' VIEWS. »

SUITABLE OCCUPATIONS.

Th o training of soldiers who have returned from tho front suffering, or supposed to bo suffering, from tuberculosis to occupation suitable to their physical condition has been tho subject of correspondence between Dr. G. J. Blackmore, medical director of tuberculosis institutions, and Mr. J. R. Samson, director of repatriation. In a recent letter, Dr. Blackmore, replying to a communication from I Mr, Samson with reference to the training i of soldiers at the Government Experimental Farm at Ruakura, recommended fruitfarming, beekeeping, and poultry keeping as threo occupation* peculiarly suited to men who had been under treatment for consumption of tho lungs, and who had had the disease arrested. For several years he had impressed on patients the desirability of taking up these occupations in preference to returning to indoor work. It was true, as stated by the Department of Agriculture, that. fowl was suscepj tible to i,. .'crculosis, but the type of disj ease was different from that occurring in human beings, ami it was diJßoult to transfer the disease from man to bird, and, vice versa. It was probably ;iot impossible for fowls to develop tuberculosis as J the result of gross infection from human beings, but exhaustive experiments Had proved tho danger to be infinitesimal. Therefore, it seemed scarcely ri§ht to prevent ex-consumptives from taking up an occupation particularly suited to their condition because of some hypothetical danger to Iho fowl. Selection for Training. ' Referring to the possibility of men who had had consumption conveying the disease to others, Dr. Blackmoro said the malady was soldom, if ever, contracted out of doors; that, in the very earliest stages of the dissssii a consumptive was not infectious, ai.3 if he were treated then may never become infectious; that when an infectious man had had the disease arrested and was not longer excreting the germ of consumption, he ceased to ba infectious. One important point in connection with soldiers was that some hundreds of soldiers had been returned to tho Dominion as being tuberculous, whore no definite proof of their having had the disease was forthcoming, and in whom it was impossible to detect any trace of lung tuberculosis upon their arrival in New Zealand. If tno Department of Agriculture were to refuso these men access to the training farms without any discrimination, eimply because they had booh labelled "tuberculous" by the Defence Department, a cruel and grave injustice would be done to a considerable number of men! who deserved more consideration than j almost any other class of disabled soldier, j Ha agreed that men who had been under' treatment for the disease should not be ; accepted for training indiscriminately, and suggested that a certificate to the effect! that they were freo from infection, and that their state of health was such as to warrant the belief that they would bo able to work for their living after having undergone training, should first be forthcoming. Further, all men who had been in an institution for treatment shou'd bo examined periodically by a medical man, and in their own interests, 6ome arrangement should be made for them to Bleep alone in some sort of open-air hat. Men suffering from actual consumption should bo in a sanatorium or some other institution for the treatment of the disease. Work at Sanatoria. Dr. Blackmore also stated that vocational training could, to a certain extent, and in favourable cases, be carried out in sanatoria, such training to bo entirely subordinate to treatment, and to be given for but a short time each day. He suggested that in all sanatoria where soldiers were treated poultry and bees should be kept and fruit trees grown, so that, as their physical condition permitted, tho men might rcceivo a certain amount of instruction in those subjects from exports. In conclusion, Dr. Blackmore stated that such instruction would in most cases need to be supplemented by further training after the men left the sanatorium, and if tho Department of Agriculture still objected to having anything to do with them, the Repatriation Department might establish a fruit, bee, and poultiy farm of its own for training purposes, FARM AT TAUHERENIKAU. ESTABLISHMENT ARRANGED FOR. Arraneements have now been completed by the Repatriation Department to establish a farm at Tauheremkau for tho training of discharged soldiers who are recovering from tuberculosis. Soldiers who are affected may make application to the local repatriation office to be placed on tho farm.