Dorchester Illustration no. 2397 Prendergast Preventorium
The Public Health Museum in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, reminds us that March 24 is TB day.
On March 24, 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB). At that time, TB killed one out of every seven people living in the United States and Europe. Dr. Koch’s discovery was the most important step taken toward the control and elimination of this deadly disease. A century later, March 24 was designated World TB Day: a day to educate the public about the impact of TB around the world.
Until TB is eliminated, World TB Day won’t be a celebration. But it is a valuable opportunity to educate the public about the devastation TB can spread and how it can be stopped.
A theory emerged in the later 1800s that fresh mountain air and sunshine were helpful in controlling the disease. It was only in the 1950s that it was discovered that a cocktail of drugs could cure the disease in 80 to 90 percent of cases. Newer drugs have helped improve the rate and shortened the treatment period to 6 months.
Our local history includes the establishment of the Prendergast Preventorium at 1000 Harvard Street, Mattapan and other camps, notably at the Boston Consumptives Hospital at 249 River Street.
Prendergast Preventorium.
John and Helen O’Brien were two of the happy youngsters who passed yesterday it the open air at the Mattapan Prendergast Camp. Nature’s remedies, in adult doses, are the sole prescriptions.
Excerpts from The Boston Globe, August 19, 1921
A children’s party for 50 was held yesterday at the Prendergast Camp in the woods off Harvard St., Mattapan. Boston Tuberculosis Association was the host and primarily the party was a demonstration to bring public attention to the preventorium planned to be established at the camp as soon as the association can finance it. Dr. John B. Hawes, president of the association, says that Boston is 10 years behind the times because it has no preventorium. Since Boston has been the pioneer in every progressive project of tuberculosis care, cure and prevention, it is distinctly up to Boston to treat the situation properly.
Children from various parts of the city who are in homes where there are adult cases of consumption or who already show signs of a tuberculosis infection were the guests for the all day picnic.
Autos donated by various local motor companies transported the children to camp. Games and the facilities the camp affords for fun were enjoyed. On little girl discovered an excellent sliding place on the bulkhead from the cellar.
At noon a sumptuous repast was handed out. In the afternoon before they journeyed home they were each given a pint bottle of milk and a straw to convey the contents to the proper place. Another feature was a milk fairy, who entertained the children with stories about milk with moral lessons. Another feature was a tooth brush drill. Each child was given a tooth brush and then they all showed how much system they knew about “eight strokes up, down, etc.” There was a cracker-eating contest and then whistling, or–in case of girls–singing, to prove the crumbs were all “down.”
Prendergast Camp was begun 10 years ago as a lodging place for working men who were not free enough from consumption to sleep in their city homes. Later it developed into quarters for men on the waiting list for State sanatoria. Now that use is over and it is planned to use the camp as a preventorium for children.
