The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-05
HOW TO FIGHT DISEASE.
CLIMATE AND CONSUMPTION NVES-
TIGATED BY EDWIN A. CURLEY.
About Ore-Ninth of the American Peo-
pie Probably Die of the Fell Disease,
Though the Statistics Are Not Exact.
The North Carolina Sanitarium.

pie Probably Die of the Fell Disease,
Though the Statistics Are Not Exact.
The North Carolina Sanitarium.
Especial Correspondence
AsHEvILLE, N c., Jan. Mot far from
one-eighth of all the deaths in American
cities and one-tenth of those in rural dis
tricts are caused directly by consumption
or other form of tuberculosis. None is
entirely safe from it, and all have lost rela-
tives or friends by its ravages. 1t is there
fore no wonder that such eager expectation
waits on the experiments and discoveries
of DIR. Koch, which seem to show that in
some forms of this disease it is possible to
poison the bacilli without killing the pa
tient.
According to the census of 1880, of every
million of our population in American
cities 2,s55 died in that year of consump-
ton, and in rural districts 1852. We have
reason to believe that a very considerable
proportion of deaths in rural districts fail
to be recorded. and consequently that
these figures are much under the fact
Estimating the average of the whole coun-
try at Z, 800 and the population at "a, 900, 900,
it follows that consumption kills 10000
persons in the United States in a single
year.
Thanks to Dr. Koch's great discovery, we
may hope that it will be almost completely
extirpated, not because his lymph will
raise the dead or even restore the mort
bund; not necessarily because in itself it is
worth even a tenth part as much as wise
prevention or half as much as well known
sanitary and climatic conditions applied in
early stages of the disease, but because it
rivets the attention of the acutest minds
and has the ear of the general public.
What is now known to comparatively few
will become common property. 1t will be
made fuller and more precise, and be sup
plemented by other important discoveries
in climatology and sanitary science. The
sanitarian, climatologist and poisoner of
bacilli will join their forces, and cases too
extreme to yield to any one will be con-
quered by a combined assault.
! have been engaged in many special in
vestigations, in the course of which have
seen many persons-perhaps some thou
sands-who have been cured of consump-
ton by climate and care.
l left Brooklyn, n. Y, for the present
investigation on Thanksgiving last, and
made my first stop in Washington, where,
for nearly a week, / delved into statistics
and hunted such information as the CAPT
tal was able to afford. The investigator of
climate and consumption is as greedy
for statistics as the bank examiner for
ledgers, but it does not follow that either
designs to impose upon the public sur
felt of his peculiar food.
There is not state in the Union where
do i
but in some places it is the most prevalent
of all diseases, while in others it is very ex-
ceptional: If You are afflicted with this
enervating agent the doctor can poison the
bacilli with quinine but if there is danger
that he will kill you with the same medi-
cine you had better go to more favora-
BILE climate if possible. Vital statistics
should very clearly indicate the part of the
country in which your natural forces will
overcome the enemy with very little aid
from the poisons of the apothecary.
The same reasoning applies to consump-
ZION, but not in the same degree There
are some places so malarioas that in our
present state of medical knowledge and
sanitary appliances a white man can
scarcely remain there through a summer
season and live. There is no place so dead
ly because of consumption, and l know of
no place so entirely safe from consumption
as some are from malaria. But the city is
worse than the country, dry climates are
generally preferable to wet, and sunny re-
gions safer than the dark northern slopes Of
great mountains. Statistics tell us also
that a larger proportion of negroes are
killed by the tuberculosis bacillus tnan
whites, more women than men, and more
people in crowded parts of the city than in
regions inhabited by the wealthy, and that
certain vocations are deadly in comparison
with others. All of this indicates the i'm
portance of good sanitary conditions and
plenty of fresh air.
You had a friend strong and healthy,
but at some period when her vitality was
low, and a cold had injured her
lungs, she was taken with consumption
and soon died. You have another friend
whose lung troubles commenced some
years ago. Every summer he is a little
better, every winter he loses-perhaps a
little more than he has gained-but the
fight of MS vital forces against the myriads
of their microscopic enemies has not been
altogether one sided, although your eli
mate is an unfavorable one. In that case
brious cline where few die of consump-
ton, and if he has not delayed too long,
if no mistakes are made, and other things
are equal, he will almost certainly recover.
The probability is strong that not only
your two friends but you yourself have
inhaled tubercular bacilli in appalling
numbers. You have also eaten them with |
your beef, and most certainly, if you live in |
a large city, you have swallowed them all |
alive in your milk. This was done by your |
two friends as well as by yourself with !
lmpunity for many years, because none of (
these enemies found a Judgment. 1t is not |
inherently impossible that you could battle |
your hands in a pint of undiluted rattle |
snake poison with perfect IMMUNITY, and |
yet if one small part of drop reached the |
living blood through some wound in the |
skin, so slight as to be quite unnoticed, the |
measures would have to be taken |
or you would suffer much and possibly die !
In Europe the general practice is TO keep |
game till it is little high" before cook |
ing. 1t is not only more pleasant to the |
accustomed palate, but it digests more |
EASILY when decomposition has definitely |
set in before it is cooked and eaten. Yet |
il is a strong poison, and little of il in /
iected beneath the skin would be very like |
" TO cause what is called blood poison |
ing and death.
The integument which covers the ulti- |
mate particles of blood circulating N the /
lungs Is exceedingly thin and porous 1t |
keeps the blood particles from 'spilling /
put, and freely admits the atoms Of oxy- |
gen, as a bag of thin cotton will hold the 1
finest shot while 1t freely permits unlin- /
ted quantities of water TO run in or out. /
Minute as are the tubercular bacili, it Is /
probable that they cannot come in actual |
contact with the blood in the lungs as long |
a. the filmy skin is perfect, nor can they |