The Tuberculosis Nurse: Her Function and Her Qualifications: A Handbook for Practical Workers in the Tuberculosis Campaign

In 1915, tuberculosis still stalked American cities like a quiet terror. Called "the white plague," it killed more young adults than any other disease, and it preyed especially on the poor, the malnourished, those crammed into dark tenements. This handbook, written by Ellen N. La Motte, captures a pivotal moment in public health: the desperate, door-to-door campaign to contain a contagion that medicine could not yet cure. La Motte, who tended TB patients in wartime wards, maps the tuberculosis nurse's daily work: visiting cramped apartments to teach families about isolation and fresh air, chasing down patients who'd vanished from sanatorium waiting lists, persuading landlords to open windows, convincing immigrants that consumption was not a moral failing. She outlines the qualifications, the temperament, the endless patience required. These were not simply nurses. They were social workers, educators, and detectives rolled into one, fighting a disease that was as much a product of poverty as of bacteria. A vital document for anyone interested in the origins of public health nursing, the history of America's longest war against infectious disease, or the women who walked into tenements when everyone else ran out.