The historic times. [volume] (Lawrence, Kansas) 1891-1891, 1891-07-11

A New York Medical Journal Gives Some
Timely Advice In Regard to the Spread
~F


Timely Advice In Regard to the Spread
Of Consumption
New YORK, July a~In an article on
the selection of health resorts for pa
tients by physicians the Medical Jour
nal calls attention to the factors of
climate, water supply and others but
particularizes with regard to one, say
ing: 49, @
Among communicable disorders con-
sumption or tuberculosis takes rank as
the chief destroyer of mankind More
over. it 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 as seem most favorable
for their improvement In this country
they select Florida, the Carolinas. Col
orado and Southern California; in Eu-
rope certain portions of the Mediterra-
mean coast A legion OF hotels and
boarding houses has sprung up to meet
the requirements of this migration.
Now, in the light of recent medical
discovery, each tuberculosis patient is
to be regarded as q 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 expectoration.
Comparatively few tuberculous
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 it is now ten years
since Weichselbaum, of Vienna, caused
numberless rabbits to die of tuber-
culosis by having them breathe mir
which was made to pass over the sputa
tspittle) of human consumptives before
it 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 as they are not dry
enough to be blown about in the at
mosphere and to be inhaled and begin
devastations anew in some delicate but
still healthy pulmonary organ.
We say, then, and desire to empha-
size these facts, that consumptive pa
tients are not fully aware of the venom
that is in them, that their relatives and
friends do not know of the danger, and
particularly that this knowledge has
certainly not yet reached the hotels
and boarding houses of the health re-
sorts; and we might further add that
even the physicians at 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 any one 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 bncilli which
emanated from them. They spend
whole days upon spacious verandas, on
whose floors are numerous tell-tale
stains, each at some time or another the
temporary resting-place of numbers Of
tubercular germs The warm sun and
the gentle airs, which are the special
features of such resorts, both favor mi
crobic desiccation and local dissemina-
ton. What chance, then, we ask, has
the consumptive to avoid further inocu.
lation of his wounded pulmonary It's
sues? What opportunity have the
healthy relatives or friends who accom-
pany the patient or other winter visit
ors to escape the risks of breathing this
bacillus-laden atmosphere?
1t will be seen that the consumptive
owes 1t to his fellow-men to protect
them from contagion as far as possible.
This he can do to a great extent by the
careful destruction of his expectora-
tion. At the large apothecaries' shops
paper cups are to be had by the dozen
at a small price which after use can be
burned. The keepers of hotels should
see that the rooms of tuberculous pa
tents are plainly and appropriately fur
nished for their special use under the
advice of physician, and after the de-
parture have'them properly disinfected
and renovated In such rooms, in the
long corridors and upon all of the piaz-
zas there should be an abundant supply
of cuspidors; these should always be
half Allied with water, and the contents
should be burned or otherwise destroyed
daily.
The verandas should be thoroughly
scrubbed with soap and water, or with
with some antiseptic solution daily.
But naturally our chief reliance must
be placed upon the education Of the in
valids themselves and their relatives or
attendants to a knowledge of the facts,
and upon their conscientious and scrn-
pulous carrying out of the procedures
recommended In the meantime, an
til these innovations are made, con-
sumptives and other delicate visitors TO
such winter resorts win do better
TO fee TO farms or to tents and
camp out upon the hotel grounds
or in the pine woods or among the
mountain soktudes than TO endan-
ger their future In rooms which reek
with the germs left by former occu-
pants or upon verandas where Turk
virulent and insidious enemies
Anew Cure for Consumption.