Beschreibung:

Patient register, 3/4 leather over cloth (12 x 18 in.), 396 preprinted pages, with records dating from 8 August 1907 through 11 July 1908. There are records for 375 individuals, with 16 listed as having two pages each (according to the index). There is certainly data to be "mined" from these records. A cursory count indicates that about 86 of the 375 are Black ("Col[ored]." or just "C" on the "color" line), for a population of 23%. Country of nativity suggests at least a dozen countries. We only counted a few for the first half of the volume, and of 199 tallied, surprisingly only 11 were born in Germany. Natives think of Cincinnati as a heavily German town (it is - before the Civil War there were more German than English printers/publishers in the city), but by the turn of the 20th century, the flood of immigration from there had slowed to a trickle. There was the expected group from England, Ireland and Scotland (nearly as many as Germans, and maybe surprisingly, four from Macedonia (whom the doctors noted did not speak English or German) and a few from Hungary and Romania. There was even one woman from Syria (occupation listed as "peddlar"). Russians, Australians and Swiss round out the nations of nativity. As for those born in the US, they came from most states east of the Mississippi, especially Tennessee and Georgia in addition to Kentucky and Indiana. We looked at occupations, just to see if any stood out as putting the individual at greater risk of contracting TB than others. Those at the hospital were clearly middle class and lower, but only a few seemed to be completely unemployed. Probably half were "laborers," with the remainder being semi-skilled and skilled laborers of every description: bricklayer, capmaker, machinists, teamsters, shoemakers, painters, firemen, watchmen, waiters (at least two "C's"), a boxmaker, porters, "furniture car worker," structural ironworker, cooks and bartenders, carriage painter, barber, cement finisher, monument work (granite cutter), wood carver and carpenters, printer, elevator operator, Turner, Hostler, drivers, brass welder, harness maker, polisher, coachman, expressman, cooper, trap maker, tailor, glass blower, paper hangers, a tinner, butler, musician (no details). But a couple of interesting ones are the "huckster" and "harlot." Most of the women were "house workers," but at least two were listed as sales women. Two of the Black women were specifically "Domestics," apparently being paid for their housework - though likely not much. Only one man was listed as a farmer - this is clearly an urban population. Some of the "Remarks" are interesting. One man (33 yrs old) is listed as "...a fencing master in the English Army." Most of the comments concern outcomes or related issues. The group completely "missing" is the upper classes. Presumably they were being cared for by private physicians, and possibly going to Denver or other Western resorts for recovery. The jobs that were likely the highest paying in the patient records were manager (no more details), clerk, and bookkeeper (one each). This time period was one of great spread in the "Sanatorium Movement," with the first dedicated tuberculosis sanatorium being built in the Adirondack mountains by Edward Trudeau in 1885. He was convinced he had been cured by clean living and fresh mountain air, and sought to offer that cure to others. At the same time, public pressure was being put on cities and states to stop the spread of the "White Plague," as the disease was sometimes known. So the goals of finding a cure and isolating the sick from society came together and sanatorium building took off. By 1900 there were 34 sanatoriums across the country; a quarter century later, by 1925, there were 536 with over 2/3 of a million beds. Although most municipalities did not have the goal of curing, that does seem to have been the point in the Hamilton County records, or at least scientifically determining a cause. Patients are recorded as recove