The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-01-23
HoT-BEDs OF LUNG DISEASE.

Crowded meeting houses and lecture halls
may thus become veritabe seminaTes of cpl
demic catarTh, and the last conner always runs
an extra risk; especially if his lungs should,
by previous affections, have become specially
sensitive to the influence Of the atmospheric
virus Street ears are still more apt to dissent
nate the germs of catarrh, aud various eireum-
stances seem to support the theory of medical
friend of mine. who holds that lung disorders
may be communicated from tho passengers to
the horses of a crowded omnibus. THE worst
constructed horse stables / ever saw in nv
life," he writes, were those of the willie
leo Company. For ventilation there was no
arrangement whatever; the shutters were not
only kept closed, but nailed down; the doors
were rarely opened light entered only through
few narrow, spiderweb- covered windows at
each end OF the den; Glth of all kinds was per-
mitted to accumulate till it actually INSTRUCTED
the passage In that equine bastille tho com
pany kept 26 horses. life weary, miserable look
ing hacks, some Of them; others spawned and
harness sore, but all of tolerabIy sound wind,
rs far az could judge. During two very ma
Iignant outbreaks Of cpizootic those four legged
Jaiibirds miraculousIy escaped contagion, while
the horses OF the strcct-car company died by
scores, in spite of all physics. Their stables too
were damp and foul but very models of con-
stTuction compared with those of the ice COM
pauy aud the only imaginable explanation
seems the circumstance that the street-car
horses are daily exposed to the concentrated
lung poison OF their human freight. In cold
weather IL to 20 persons will crowd into a box
just large enough for tYo-snufling children
coughing old crones, painting consumptivcs. all
contributing their quota of lung bane to the
already recking atmosphere of the rolling laZa-
reito. The least attempt at at direct yentiIa-
ton by opening or half-opening window
promptly provokes q chorus Of protests: oh
tyinHnKg t.gin H.
want us TO catch our dcath,eold? The idea! ,
etc, till the be disinfector seeks safety in
flight or by taking q seat as close rs possible to
the door. That door has TO be opened every
now and then, and every time a stream of pure
cold air relieves the occupants of the next
seats dungeon. break of Initiated air streams
out. and is inhaled by the horses of the next
car that has closed up TO reach switch Mt
tho next corner, or TO await the break of a
street blockade. hundred times day you
may see cars thus crowded together, furnishing
natural, though little suspected. explanation
OF the epiZootics which nearly always assume
their most malignant type in the stables OF the
metropolitan stroet-car companies"
The wrctched country population of Central
Russia includes thousands of Doors who have to
exc out the scarcity Of fuel by utilizing the
animal warmth of their cattle; in other words
by quartering their families and domestics in
the cow stable, II the night-irOst become intol-
cradle and brandy or government taxes have
curtniled the store of fire wood. In that way a
special disease, propagntcd by atmospheric con-
tagion, may often have been communicated
from man TO beast, and IL is a suggestive fact
that the last five destructive murrans have
withom Il single exception, been traced TO starting
points IN some poverty stricken country dis
tTict OF European Russia. In 1865 that plague
cost Great Britain $4,000 head of cattle; in
lI44 Denmark alone lost 2S0, 900 head Italy,
655,OOo, and IN some provinces of Sweden only
two per cent. of the livestock escaped destruc-
ton, Like epiZootics, murrains generally in
volve Il fatal congestion of the pulmonary
organs, aud the only effective precaution is 10
remove valuable animals to the farthcst pos
sible distance from the infected districts even
at the risk of having to tether them Mt night in
tho open fields.
For influenza, too, timely flight from the
centers OF contagion has proved the only reli-
able preventive. In its westward progress the
epidemic has followed the crowded routes of
travel, spreading from city to city, but sparing
the thinly.settled country districts. ''How is
ii you have escaped the trouble in this damn
cold weather. refugee asked Tennessee
mountaineer OF my acquaintance; "why, il
has spread all along the main road from Rich.
mond to Knoxvilel" Maybe it's too big 10
come up our narrow gage, replied the facetious
native.
People who ara unable TO leave the city
should Mt least avoid crowded assembles-aue-
tion-rooms, popular shows, and public libra
ries-and iumigate their houses especially
the bedrooms aud nurseries-by pouring arc
matte vinegar on u hot pan or sprinkliug car
bolic acid along the halls and corridors
Don't open that windOw-the endemic ia
sure To get in If you do" Mrs. Goodwile is ant
to protesti but influenza is not pr0pagated i'm
that fashion. It is communicated from person
to person by direct exhalation of tho disease
germs, which may hover in the stagnant atmos-
phere OF crowded sohoolroom, but cannot
travel through the cold, open air to any consid-
cradle distance. Close tho street door rather
than the window. ask letter-carriers and
errand-boys to deliver their consignments on
the porch, aud hand out tramp lunches at the
end OF II l0-foot pole. If Ia grippe should, new
ertheless force the blockade, do not fall into
the tatuous mistake of thinking it necessary
to raise the temperature of the sick room to a
furnace heat, Keep the bedrooms cool, and do
not aggravate the distress of patient with
" counter irritants," external or internal. Sim
pie syrup, as prophyactio of respiratory
affections, is not easy to excel: Dissolve three
pounds of common brown sugar in hot water
till the solution assumes tho consistency of
fresh honey; keep it warm, and let the patient
sip n couple of teaspoonfuls about once an hour,