The St. Johns herald., 1894-04-26
ABOUT CONSULTATION.
It Is Declared to Be Contagious
 Disease.
An Ancient Theory Revived Through Scientific InvestigatiOn-No PrOvI- sIons Against CnntaGiOn
 Can Be Eade.

ne 1HllauEIDuld 1O4lLf -uCnlCdl oO- ciety has petitioned the board of health of that city to put consumption of the lungs on the list of contagious diseases, says the Baltimore Sun. The request has awakened interest in the old question of the contagiousness of consumption and incidentally on the general subject of infection and con tagion. Some of the diseases which flesh is heir to are contagious in every sense of the word. A contact so slight that it does not even reach skin contact, but merely with the air which smallpox patients breathe, is sufficient to cause smallpox in man. So, too, mediate contact-that is to say, the handling by the well of material touched by the sick-has been proved to be the cause of many diseases. of which erysipelas and scarlet fever may be cited as examples. The products of certain other diseases-typhoid fever, for example-require to be taken into the economy to become maleficent. Still others, such as glanders, must be introduced into the blood current itself before they are dangerous. These JdcIS AdRG DCEn DlOFCo Oy AClAt5 OD seryation and are not to be disputed. A horseman treats case of glanders with perfect security, provided his skin is whole or is protected. A nurse or doctor stays for hours in the room of the typhoid patient and suffers no hurt. The older doctors, therefore, set these diseases to one side as in- fectious, but not contagious, for it was equally evident that they were carried from patient to patient, not through the air, but through other, and to them unknown, means.
 The discoveries in bacteriology have settled many questions, but have uh- settled many others which were sup posed to have been fixed forever. Among other things it has broken down the barriers between contagious and infectious diseases. All the dis cases which have been mentioned are now believed to be caused by germs of vegetal origin, some of which are known, others of which are only sus- pected The explanation of the bac- teriologist as to the difference in their effect on the human organism IS sim ply that of the Bible. Some germs fall on good ground and multiply, others on stony ground and fail to grow, or wither at once. When a typhoid germ is breathed into the lungs it perishes just as do the myriad of other germs which we daily breathe. 1t is far other wise if it is swallowed with the food or drink, and finds after running the gauntlet of the juices of the stomach suitable place for growth in the intes- tines. The germ grows and multiplies, and the ordinary phenomena of the disease result. This will give a gen. eral idea of the simple and apparently complete answer to many of the veXed questions which puzzled the older doe tors.
 Unfortunately the practical diff culties are not entirely removed by the theoretical explanation, and espe- cially is this true of consumption. Even if it is granted that the disease all ways originates from germ, and that this germ came from some previous case of the disease, the fact that so many escape where almost all are eX- posed shows that there must be other factors than the germ alone which cause the disease, or at least aid in its propagation. So far these other fac tors are almost unknown.
 That consumption was contagiou was an old theory, and the Spaniard centuries ago were in the habit of de- stroying the bedding and belongings of consumptives, and in some eases even the houses in which they lived, for fear of the spreading of the plague. That it is not very actively contagious is proved sufficiently by the fact that the dwellers in cities are alive at all, for statistics prove that from one-tenth to one-fifth of all the deaths in large cities are due directly or indirectly to the disease, and that consequently number of sufferers from the disease must be present in every large gather ing of people. Except in the later stages the patient is not confined to his bed. He mingles in all the social | and industrial avocations of life. Not infrequently he is ''the life of the party" or the hardest worker of the office" In the present state of society, at least, such men cannot be con- demned to a leper camp nor sent against their wills to a sanitarium, however excellent.
 The general fact that consumption is | a disease which, under certain circum- stances, may become contagious or in feetious, should be admitted. A suf- ficient number of cases are known ] where the carrying of the disease from the i'll to the weR is clearly proved to 1 demonstrate the general truth that | consumption is sometimes contagious. This should lead to the most scrup- | ulous care on the part not only of the l physician but of the intelligent pa tient to prevent the spread of the dis ease. But any attempt to prevent such | infection by quarantine regulation must almost necessarily prove abor- tive.
 Japanese Professions.
 A singular illustration of the per sistence with which the Japanese ad-