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Here in this tuberculosis nest lived the family of John M'Neil...
Drama 1911 22 mins Silent
This dramatised account of the experiences of a Scottish family devastated by tuberculosis is believed to be the first British health education film. Ill-ventilated slum tenements, such as the one shown here (the "Tuberculosis Nest") were breeding grounds for the deadly disease. The film offers practical guidance as well as a message of hope and was widely shown across Britain, usually accompanied by a lecture.
The filmmaker, Halliday Gibson Sutherland, was a British doctor and author. He researched and wrote widely about tuberculosis and in the year he made this film he founded a tuberculosis clinic and an open-air school for children - like the one featured in this film - in the bandstand of Regent's Park in London.
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