The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-06-06
CONCERNING CONSUMPTION.
Some Startling Figures Given by .
Noted English Specialist.
LanaAtable Ignorance of the People Re-
RaFding tho Dangerous Features OF
the Dlsease-Some Means
Of Prevention.

A book by DR.. William Murrell, q
celebrated English specialist, entitled
"Clinical Lectures on the Prevention Of
Consumption, has just been published
in London and is attracting much at
tention there on account of its being an
eminently practica. work, and because
the preventive measures which he pro-
poses have been thoroughly considered
and are readily applicable by every one.
In this country, according to the lat
est statistics, more people die from con-
sumption than any other disease. In
the census year OF. 1S89-'90 there were
over 100000 deaths from this disease.
In England and Wales, DR.. Murrell says,
from $4,000 to &C, 900 people die annual
ly from consumption, and another 5O,-
600 from other tuberculous diseases.
In the 80 years from 1s4s to 1880, the
number of deaths registered as due to
phthisis, or consumption of the lungs,
was 1,702, ,o27, the majority of patients
being comparatively young adults. =
DR.. Murrell states that perhaps the
first great need is that the publ should
realize that consumption is an infec-
tious disease. The infectious nature OF
the malady is recognized by all doctors,
but even the educated public are on
the whole lamentably ignorant on the
subject.
If it were once realized that all forms
of tuberculous disease are due to the
presence of germ. the tubercle bacil-
lus, and that the germ or its spores may
pass from the tuberculous patient to
the healthy and there set UP similar
mischief; and that it is possible to pre-
vent the passage of the living germ
from the diseased to the healthy, a
great advance would have been made
OH the attempt to prevent the spread Of
the disease. Speaking of the dangers
of infection DR.. Murrell says on the
authority of DR.. Hermann Weber:
''rhe following is the history of IS
persons, male or female, who, with a
more or less pronounced consumptive
faint, married healthy partners. The
wives of SO became infected, and the
husbands III more than one instance in
fected more than one wife Thus, ninc
husbands lost between them IL wives
i'll this way, one having lost four wives
one losing three, four others two each.
and three only one each. The hus-
bands who married consumptive wives
suffered less, for of the husbands OF
% wives only one was infected.
"Bergeret also records remarkable
instance of the communicability of con-
sumption. He relates the case of a sol
dier, healthy and without hereditary
taint, who. suffering from trivial all
ment was sent to q hospital. BY
chance he was placed in a ward between
two consumptive patients. He speed
lily developed symptoms Of the disease,
aud was sent home to his native place.
Shortly after his mother, two brothers
and q neighbor and his wife became
consumptivc."
AS to the methods recommended for
preventing the disease, they may k-
gathered from a perusal of the condi-
tions which are favorable to its spread,
and from the observance of q few sim
pie rules. Overcrowding, deficient
ventilation, bad drainage, damp eli
mate, dusty occupations and insult
cient sunlight all help to induce con-
dition of ill-health which renders the
subjects of it easy victims to the in
fect;on.
This has been strikingly illustrated
in England many times with soldiers
in barracks and with the inmates of
prisons. tuberculosis uso occur. in
epidemic form among animals kept in
confinement. One mode of spreading
the disease, which is often the cause of
the infection of children, is the practice
of kissing on the mouth. This repre-
hensible procedure should be most ear
nestly discouraged" says DR.. Murrcll.
Other meslns of prevention which the
author says he cannot too strorgl.
recommend are the thorough disinfec
ton OF the rooms and clothing of con-
sumptive patients, the isolation of pa
tients in an advanced stage of the dis
ease, the inspection of cattle, the pre-
vention OF overcrowding, the ccndem-
nation of all bacl1-to-back houses, the
rejection as an article OF food, OF the
milk from tuberculous cows, and the
regulation of dusty occupations SO as
to minimize the dangers arising from
them.-Chicago Tribune.
- rss = -