The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-18
PREVENTION OF DISEASE.

For many years ~consumptives have made
California a health resort, and if any one
has objected the fact has not been known,
the boarding and care of such invalids be-
ing among the profitable industries of the
State. But since it has been scientifically
determined that the disease of consumption
is communicable the matter is looked upon
from another point of view. Statistics
show that the malady is spreading through
out the State to a far greater degree than
tins coming from other localities, and
physicians are raising an alarm. 1t is easy
to understand how this increase has oc-
CURED. In all the years since c~onsumptives
began going to the State in search of
health no pains have been taken to guard
those who associated with them from the
contagion, such a thing as isolation being
undreamed of. Rooms occupied by them
at hotels and boarding houses received no
special sanitary attention before being
turned over to other persons, and every
condition was favorable to a spread of the
disease. 1t is time the matter was agi-
tated and such precautions taken as will
protect the residents and the innocent and
healthy pleasure seeker from an ailment
more to be dreaded than many a one which
is quarantined against as a pestilence. If
the communicable character of consumption
had been understood by New Englanders it
would probably not have gained the foot
hold it has in that region. 1t stands to rea-
son that if the means of communication is
floating particles of the dried sputum
elected from the lungs, that a house with
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tinuously for fifty or a hundred years, be-
come simply a breeding place for the dis
ease when there has been no furnigation
or process of disinfection in all that period.
The old homes in New England are looked
upon with reverence, but for some of them
a cleansing fire would be the best thing to
advise. The New England climate is bad.
but it is not responsible for all the lung
disease within its borders. What is true of
California is probably true of Colorado and
Florida, though no complaint has come
from those States.
Mankind cannot be guarded against all
the ills that flesh is heir to, but when
science points out the way to avert at
least part of the danger it is the duty of
those who look after public welfare to act
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suffer inconvenience. but their discomfort
should not count against the general bene-
fit. The health board of Indiana has not
taken active measures against the spread
of consumption, but it is doing good work
In other directions, notably in regard to
diphtheria, and deserves aid and common
dation therefor. If it's regulations as ap-
piled to schools. for example, seem to some
needlessly exacting, those who have seen
or suffered from the ravages of this terrible
scourge will uphold the severest measures.
1t is only by making the preventive rules
strict and impressive that the ignorant and
needless members of the community can be
taught to take even a slight degree of care
in such matters. AS the population be-
comes more crowded observance of sani-
tary science and rules of hygiene becomes
more imperative, and every movement in
that line is to be encouraged.