Los Cerrillos rustler. (Cerrillos, N.M.) 188?-1891, 1891-07-17
nEklTH RESORTS.

Nue sEAeEluu OF heaAAu FNeAF1 AoN -
aents By physicians the Medical Jour
nal calls attention 70 the factors Of
climate. water supply and otherN but
particulArizes with regard 10 one, say
ing
Among communicable disorders con
sumption or tuberculosis takes rank a.
the chief destroyer Of mankind More
over. II Is precisely those afflicted with
this dread disease who receive marked
benefit from certain climates, and who.
therefore. congregAte In large numbers
In such regions a. seem most favorable
for their improvement In this country
they select Florida. the CarolinaA. Col
orado and Southern California; In Eu-
rope certain portions Of the Mediterra-
mean coast A legion Of hotels and
boarding houses has sprung mp 10 meet
the requirements Of this migration
Now, In the light Of recent medical
discovery. each tuberculosis patient IA
% be regarded as n indus nest OF
tuberculAr germs. From him others
may be contaminated by inhaling the
specific microbes which exist In his
lungs and which are continually being
elected from him by cxpectoration.
Comparatively few t~uberculous
patients are as yet aware Of the in
fective nature of the discharges from
their lungs and Of the need for their de-
struction. although II Is now ten years
since weichselbaum. Of Vienna caused
~numberless rabbits to die OF tuber-
culosis by having them breathe air
which was made 10 pass over the sputa
(spittle) Of human consumptives before
Il reached their cages The bacilli Of
the disease, discovered by Koch, are at
present In large numbers In the expec-
toration. but they are not specially
dangerous so long rs they are not dry
enough TO be blown about in the at
mosphere and to be inhaled and begin
devastations anew in some d~licate but
still healthy pulmonary organ.
We say, then, and desire to empha-
size these facts, hat consumptive pa
tients are not fully aware Of the venom
that il In them. that their relatives and
friends do not know of the danger. and
particularly that this knowledge has
certainly not yet reached h hotels
and boarding houses of the health re-
sorts; and we might further add that
even the physicians ut many of these
Chronological stations seem not yet to
have awakened TO the need OF acting
upon the results of recent medical re-
searches.
Let us examine almost m N OF
their hotels or boarding houses. In
many of their rooms for years consump
tive patients have passed whole seasons,
taking no precautions as to the ulti
mate destination of the bacilli which
emanated from them. They spenC
whole days upon spacious %verandas, OF
whose floors are numerous tell-tal'
stains, each at some time or another th'
temporary resting-place of numbers o
tubercular germs. The warm sun ant
the gentle airs, which are the specia
features of such resorts, both favor mi
crobic desiccation and local dissemina
tion. What chance. then, we ask, ha
the consumptive TO avoid further inocu
lation of his wounded pulmonary lis
sues? What opportunity have tn
healthy relatives or friends who accom-
pany the patient or other winter visit
ors to escape the risks of breathing thi
bacillus-ladcn atmosphere?
II will be seer that the consumptiv
owes II to his fellow-men to protec
them from contagioi as far as possible
This he can do to "A great extent by tn
careful destruction of his eNpectori
ton. At the large apothecaries' shop
paper cups are to be had by the doze
at n small price which after use can b
burned. The keepers of hotels shout
see that the rooms Of tuberculous pr
tents are plainly and appropriately fur
nished for their special use under th
advice of Il physician. and after the d,
parture have them properly disinfccte
and renovated. In such rooms, in tn
long corridors and upon all OF the pia
zas there should be an abundant suppl
of cuspidors; these should always |
half filed with water, and the conten
should be burned or otherwise destroyc
daily.
The verandas should be thorough
scrubbed with soap and water, or wit
with some antiseptic solution dali,
But naturally our chief reliance mu
be placed upon the education of the i
valids themselves and their relatives
attendants to a knowledge of the fact
and upon their conscientious and scr
pulous carrying out of the procedur
recommended. In the meantime, u
ill these innovations are made, co
sumptives and other delicate visitors
such winter resorts will do bett
TO fee TO farms or to tents Al
camp out upon the hotel groun'
or in the pine woods or among u
mountain solitudes than TO enda
ger their future in rooms which rec
with the germs left by former occ
pants, or upon verandas where lur