A NEW TYPE OF PHTHISIOPHOBIA

In these twenty years of work in tuberculosis and with the tuberculous, I have come across a good many types of phthisiophobia. There is, first, the general phthisiophobia, that is to say, the exaggerated fear on the part of the layman of the presence of the consumptive. All physicians who have had anything to do with tuberculosis have seen this type of phthisiophobia. Then there is a phthisiophobia of communities which object to the establishment of sanatoria, tuberculosis dispensaries, day-camps, or even open-air schools. Nearly all our state commissions which have been entrusted with the establishment of sanatoria, have encountered this phthisiophobia, which has its origin in the fear that a sanitary or financial danger may arise to the neighbor-hood wherein such an institution should be established. In my books and articles¹ I have protested against this type of phthisiophobia more than once and have been able to demonstrate