Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-01-12
THE DREAD DISEASE.
DiphtIse4ia and its Prevention.
New York Independent.

DtphtheTtG and dts Prevention.
New York Independent.
At the recent meeting of the public health
association at Richmond member had in
his pocket statistics to show that the
ravages of diphtheria some years equal those
of the late epidemic of yellow fever. Here
| and there all over our country it breaks out,
and so often in isolated country places that
the aggregate of mortality therefrom in rural
districts is as great aa that of some of our
larger cities. A traveller, in riding in Cali
! fornla lately, seeing graveyard in which
| there were multitudes of little headstones,
on inquiry, found that year or two before
diphtheria had been so fatal as to carry off
scores of children. Just now it has broken
out with such virulence in Geneva that num-
| bers of families are mourning their losses
and the whole town is in distress over the
| affiction.
1t first found notice in the English tables
in 1855, and appeared in England apparent
ly through direct Importation from France.
The registrar general of England (1860) says
French guano was apparently the slime on
which the diphtheria, whether it is new or
old form of disease, whether it is parasitic
or simply Zymotic malady, assumed it's cpl
demic character. The French hide away in
their cabinets what the Scotch throw on
the ground, and what Englishmen do not,
at least, hoard up, as do these French maya
zines of impurity. Owing to the diffusion
of the French volatile essences over the
throat, the particles gets access to the living
chambers of the body, leaving at times such
traces of their passage as the diphtheria of the
throat. "The disease, once generated, wan
ders abroad aud destroys life under circum-
stances quite ferent from those in which
it was born; but impurity is always its natu-
raj ally We have yet to study very closely
those especial artificial conditions by which
an ordinary fux becomes a cholera, a sore
throat diphtheria, and perhaps typho-
malarial yellow fever. Hidden as they
now are, there are laws of fertilization and
propagation as real i'll physiology as in
botany: and the hybred is viler than the
parentage. Some questions of origin are as
interesting to the laity as to the doctors.
| Most physicians now believe that chol-
era never originates in this country; that
small pox, scarlet fever and measles are
always contracted from previous case. AS
to yellow fever, it is, at least agreed that no
case arises of itself north of the latitude of
Natchez, while most claim that it does not
occur as far up as New Orleans, except by
| importation. Dightheria, typhoid fever, ETC.,
belong to class which are believed gener-
| ally to result from transmission; but yet are
thought by many to occasionally happen
spontaneously from impure artificial causes.
When so occurring, diseases differ among
themselves very much in the degree of their
Effectiveness. Thus, smallpox is very liable
to be contracted in the same house, or in
passing it; while scarlet fever, diphtheria,
ETC., are not caught unless there is closer ex-
posture. Some diseases seem to be caught
not SO much from the person as from his
secretions, few hours after voidance,
when they have undergone some change
in contact with the air. Some epidemics
seem far more intense than others, as if the
! lnfective matter was generated at different
degrees of strength. The usual force of
storm concentrates into tornado, and the
epidemic strikes down all within its reach
Physicians are now studying, as they could
not in the past, the laws and circumstances
of conveyance; and, if not able always to
trace origin, will be able to define and clas-
sify the circumstances and conditions of
propagation and the best method of avoid
ing attack or severity.
In respect to diphtheria, there are few
cautions that can be used with propriety.
First-Impurity is the natural ally of all
such infections. Cleanliness is their foe.
1t may not always prevent or conquer; but
the prospect of success is best where it is. A
child with clean breath, clean skin, in
house where there is only pure air, stands
better chance to escape the disease or to re-
cover if contracting it, than do those under
opposite circumstances. The exceptions do
not disturb the rule.
Second-Next in Importance is isolation.
Diptheria is disease not easily carried from
house to house by visitors; but which no
doubt can be transmitted by folding it up in
garments impregnated with the breath or
containing the infective particles of the dis
eased person. Children should never be ex-
posed to those having it. The writer has
had to deal with it three times in his own
home; but by care 1t is confined to the one
attacked.
Third-The first symptom must be attend
ed to. 1t is disease which is virulent in the
outset and often causes blood changes very
early. such as prevent treatment. The
physician fails not because his art is imper-
feet, but because the human system has lost
the power to assimilate the medicine and the
foods which he prescribes. Where the dis
ease is very prevalent, no child's throat
should pass without daily examination, for
the disease is often under full Roadway and
patches formed before there is much COM
plant.
Fourth-We think the doctrine announced
some two years since is CORRECTIVE. that
by proper regulation of the child and by
the use of quinine, iron, and chlorate
of potassium as preventives, in small
doses, sufficient to insure their special
presence at all times in the blood,
during an epidemic, that children can be
protected from this poison as readily as they
can be protected from smallpox by vaccin-
alton. 1t must be an exact, methodical adj
ministration, such as shall not be excessive,
and yet shall show that the blood-paths are
thus preoccupied. Many physicians are now
studying this great problem. BY this and
other collateral means, we believe the TIME
is not far distant when the physician shall
show the grandest triumphs of his art in
thus limiting infective diseases, and SO saw
ing numberless lives.
Lake Como.