The Modern Crusade Against Consumption

The Modern Crusade Against Consumption is a public health book by Irving Fisher, the American economist who lived from 1867 to 1947 and who is now best known as one of the most important American economic theorists of the early twentieth century. Alongside his major work in economics Fisher had a substantial career as an advocate for public health and various forms of preventive medicine, and the book belongs to that side of his work.

Consumption in early twentieth century medical and popular usage was the standard term for pulmonary tuberculosis, the bacterial lung disease that was one of the major causes of death in the industrialized countries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The modern crusade of the title refers to the substantial public health campaign that was being conducted across the United States and Europe to identify, treat, and ultimately eliminate the disease, with various sanatorium movements, public education campaigns, slum clearance projects, and dietary reform efforts all contributing to the broader effort.

Fisher had himself contracted tuberculosis in 1898 and had spent several years in sanatorium treatment recovering from the disease. The personal experience had given him substantial direct knowledge of the medical and social dimensions of tuberculosis and had been one of the formative experiences of his early adult life. He subsequently became one of the most active American advocates for public health measures against the disease and produced this book as part of his broader public education work on the subject.

The book covers the various dimensions of the crusade against consumption as Fisher understood them. There are sections on the medical understanding of the disease, on the various sanatorium and other treatment methods, on the public health measures needed to reduce transmission of the disease in urban populations, on the social and economic factors including housing, nutrition, and working conditions that contributed to the spread of the disease in particular communities, and on the various individual measures that ordinary people could take to reduce their own risk of contracting the disease.

The book was published in 1908 during the period of substantial public engagement with tuberculosis as a public health crisis. The development of effective antibiotic treatment for the disease in the mid twentieth century eventually rendered much of the early twentieth century literature on tuberculosis prevention obsolete in its specific recommendations, but the broader public health vision that Fisher was promoting has continued relevance.

The book is mostly of interest now to historians of public health and to readers interested in Fisher’s career outside his more famous economic work.