The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-22
Consumption among Firenen.


likely to engeader pulmonary diseases Nes
physicians have lately maintained that fire
men are particularly susceptible TO con-
sumption. That seems incredible. Consid-
ering how much physical exercise they get
ore would naturally suppose them 70 be
among the healthiest Of men Exposure IS
the chief cause to which is ascribed the high
rate Of mortality among them
Recently Dr. Thomas J. Mays, Of the Phila-
delphia Polytechnic Institute, contributed 10
the Hedicot aud Surgical Reporter an
article 10 which be sets forth statistics col
lected from the fire departments of the
principal American cities, tending to refute
the argument heretofore offered to sustain
the accepted hypothesis that consumption IS
contagious, aud showing that the death
rate Is almost equally high among people
engaged in open air pursuits as among
those of indoor occuDatilns-
Explaining that 1remen when they enter
the department are subjected to tests no less
severe than those applied to insurance risks,
DR.. Hays asserts with apparent reason that
the men start their respective careers upon
the same hygienic footing.
| Among fire departments the average
death rate from consumption amounts to
80. % per cent. Of the total mortality, while
the death rate from the same cause among
the insured amounts to only 17.6l per cant,
or 1912 per cent. less than the firemen's
| death rate from the same disease. Further
| DR.. Mays statos that "the average NOR
| tally from consumption among the general
population between the ages of 20 and 20,
as founded on the statistics of a number of
large American cities, is 1929 per cent,
which exceeds the death rate among the in
sured 9.6S per cent. Basing our estimates
on the mortality of insured lives, we
add 9.6S per cent. to 1912 per cent, and
this product, %. so per cent, represents the
| liability of the fremen to consumption over
and above that of the general population.
If we now add the latter to the death rate
of the general population we get SO. 90 per
cent, which represents the relative death
rate of fremen from consumption. In
| other words, if the whole adult population
were turned into firemen, $500 per cent. Of
all their deaths would be caused by con-
sumption"
Lately DR.. George Cornet, of Berlin, pub
lished statistics to snow that 2s5 per cent
OF the nuns acting as nurses in the converts
and monasteries of Prussia die from con-
| sumption. As those nurses are largely en-
gagged in the care of consumptives these
figures have been held as convincing evil
dence that consumption is contagious.
| But after pointing out that
the death rate among inmates of German
prisons ranges from 81 to 80 per cent. from
consumption, Dr. Mays brings out the
| further fact that prisoners undergoing
solitary confinement are at least 20 per
cent. more vulnerable to the disease than
those who are allowed to freely mingle TO-
gether.
Added TO his own Investigations and ex-
perience the doctor thinks this evidence
very strongly points to the conclusion thai
pulmonary consumption is not contagious.
Firemen spend much of their time in the
open air. They are never confined to sun
less and ill-ventilated buildings. Here are
eliminated all the sanitary and hereditary
factors known to conduce to the disease.
Yet when the death rate from consumption
among them is compared with that of the
general populace it is found more than so
per cent. above. After closely watching
the various stages of the development of
consumption DR.. Mays concludes that this
very high rate of mortality is chiefly caused
by the excessive exhaustion of the physical
energies. whether or not attended by
exposure to a specific germ. Certainly
no class of men is more exposed tt
enervating physical influences than firemen
in large cities. And it is, in the language
of DR.. Mays, "the sudden transition from 6
warm room to active duty on cold win
ter's night, sometimes the urgency be-
ing so great that they are compelled to flu
ish their toilet en- route to fire; the daring
the excessive and almost superhuman exer
ton demanded in batting with the flames
the extreme oscillations of temperature t.
which their bodies are subjected, batheC
IN perspiration at one moment and
drenched and chilled by an icy stream o.
water the next; the necessity during emer-
gencies of wearing and even sleeping in wet
clothing from one fire to another, are bur-
dens which no human constitution can long
successfully withstand, and are unquestion.
ably some of the most prominent causes
which undermine the health of these self
sacrificing men and make them so vulner-
able to the disease under consideration
STILL to look at the average fireman, NJ
one would not be likely to suspect that h,
had to deal with anything more serious
; than maintaining his grip on ladders anc
eluding flying bricks and such things
Another thing the doctor has wholly
overlooked: While the standard of physical
requirements in fire departments is quite
as high as in insurance companies, yet po
litical influence frequently aids applicants
in evsding many essential details of these
requirements
Those valiant and sanguinary republicans
who have not found out that the war is
over were probably concealed where they
could not see the fighting, and only came tt
sight when they desperately decided they
) could not stay away from the provision,
| any longer. They are the ones who ar
most Justify clamoring for pensions fol