N&W in 1910--Office building

[NW Mailing List]

NW Mailing List wrote:

> Consumption was what they used to call cancer.  I would guess the 

> "home for consumptives" was a final stage care facitily of some kind.  

<snip>

As others have posted, consumption was what tuberculosis (TB) was known 
as for a long time.

It was (and still is) a major disease, and the most common form of 
death, with apparently more than 80% of the U.S. population infected 
before the age of 20 at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1938 there 
were more than 700 TB hospitals in the U.S. There are now estimated to 
be 8-10 million new cases of TB a year worldwide resulting in around 3 
million deaths.

http://www.answers.com/topic/tuberculosis

See also The History of the Tuberculosis

'It is in this larger context that the history of tuberculosis sanatoria 
in Virginia unfolds and is best understood. Blue Ridge Sanatorium, for 
instance, is representative of many of the early sanatoria in Virginia 
and beautifully embodies this complex evolution of theories regarding 
tuberculosis.'

http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/blueridgesanatorium/tuberculosis.html

and

"In the early 20th century, Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death 
in the Unites States. Southern states were more susceptible to 
Tuberculosis due to a high percentage of poverty. In particular, 
Virginia had a ranking among the highest in the country. The state of 
Virginia tried to alleviate this problem by opening state run sanatoria. 
The Catawba Sanatorium was the first to open in Virginia in 1909. 
Located near Roanoke, it offered a mountainous landscape and healing 
waters. The first sanatorium for the treatment of blacks in the state of 
Virginia was opened in 1918 near Burkeville, VA. In 1919, The Virginia 
Department of Health opened The Blue Ridge Sanatorium near Charlottesville."

http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/blueridgesanatorium/infirmary.html

 From the same source (click on 'Other Virginia Sanatoriums' it appears 
that the Catawba Hospital (and then Sanatorium) site was first 
established as a springs resort at Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, 10 miles 
from the Virginia and Tenessee Railroads Salem depot.

And from the UK's Medical Research Council

It was estimated that worldwide around 7 million people a year died from 
TB at the end of the 19th century.

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Achievementsimpact/Storiesofimpact/Tuberculosis/index.htm


Dominic
London

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