Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-11-04

How to Prevent Cousumpt,oD.

Notwithstanding that the disease is now
much more intelligently treated than for
merly, tuberculosis in its various forms, es.
pecially consumption, still causes more
deaths in New England than any other hu.
man malady. Popular hints for its pre-
Vension may do much good and on this &C.
count the little pamphlet by DIR. James A.
Burroughs of Asheville, N. c., entitled "a
few suggestions on the prevention of tu.
berculosis," deserves to be welcomed. DIR.
Burroughs at Asheville, a mountain resort
for tubercular patients, treats hundreds of
these cases from all parts of the United
States and Canada every year.
Everything that this pamphlet contains
is familiar, of course, to the medical pro-
fession and to many well-read persons of
the laity, yet no harm is done by repeating
occasionally elemental facts. tuberculosis
is an infectious and contagious disease. No
child is born with tuberculosis and no one
'lnherits consumption" save in the sense
that he inherits a constitution which, when
suffering from exhaustion or poor nutrition
or general physical debility, can offer little
resistance to the attack of the tubercular
germs. All persons are constantly ex-
posed, however, to an unnecessary degree
through the general lack of precautions
taken to prevent consumptive patients
from injecting others In their vicinity. DR.
Burroughs says that even now cit is no
infrequent occurrence for a tubercular
mother to expect to keep baby and few
small children in her bedroom, as no pro-
test has been entered against the practice
by the family physician at home"
The principal means by which the con-
tagion is spread Is the sputa of the patient.
Hence this warning, first of all:
All the sputa should be collected in a
sanitary hand cuspidor and the papers re-
moved at least twice daily and exposed to
strong solution of bichloride of mercury,
or cremated; see to the thorough destruc-
ton OF these papers of sputa, do not al
low them to be thrown into the sink TO in
feet people or cattle miles away; do not
permit blaze to consume the dry portions
OF paper, leaving the sputa with its mil
lions of germs unmolested to dry and do
their deadly work: make the patient I'M
derstand that it is the sputa you wish to
have thoroughly burned.
Asheville was the first American city or
town to pass an ordinance prohibiting ex-
pectoraton in public places, and since then
III places have passed a similar regulation
for the public health. The effect has been
highly beneficial, if for no other reason
than that 1t has taught the people the sani-
tary dangers resulting from promiscuous
spltting everywhere and anywhere by the
multitude. 1t has at least educated the
public in the knowledge of disease germs.
While well-tO.do people, when attacked
oy tuberculosis, may move to places having
dry, raretied atmosphere in which ozone
is present in large quantities, the most Sc
rlous question for the public to face is the
disposition of the tubercular poor. DIR. Bur
roughs believes that this class should have
official care by the state, since they are
largely ignorant and careless and are apt
to lounge around buildings, lawns and sub.
urban fields, scattering millions of germs
upon the grass, which infect fowls, stock
and milk" England has Is tubercular hos
pitfalls for poor people, and through the $50.
lation Of the patients in this way, she has
greatly reduced her death rate of consump-
ton. In this country, however, only New
York and Massachusetts, have attempted to
isolate the disease.
Besides tubercular hospitals, every com
munity, says DR.. Burroughs, should have
competent bacteriologist to watch its
milk and meat supply. In public schools,
where one or two pupils almost always
have tuberculosis in an unsupported form,
the time has come to generate ozone from
a special mechanical apparatus into the
assembly rooms. Nothing kills tubercular
bacilli like ozone. IAN ozone. generating
apparatus is not expensive and can be
connected with an electric current from a
street car wire coming into the building,
or with private dynamo; with the proper
apparatus the whole building can be i'm
with this germ destroying gas"
All prisons, asylums, hotels and sleeping
cars in particular should have the ozone
generator. Few persons realize what pro-
Life sources of contagion sleeping cars are
That this ozone machine may do much
good is demonstrated by its use in one of
the babies wards of the New York post
graduate hospital, where contagious
diseases "are almost curiosity"
Finally, all persons who die of tubercu-
losis should be cremated. Some patholo-
gist has calculated that the tubucular ca
daver contains about II, 000,0 900 bacilli and
whether the number be greater or less, 1t
is certain that these germs will live in the
ground for more than a quarter of CEN
fury, retaining all the vitality of the same
germ that was carelessly deposited in a
hotel lobby the day before" To bury the
consumptive dead, therefore, means simply
to infect the soil and contaminate depen-
dent water supplies for man and beast for
more than generation"
1t is encouraging to note that progress
is being made in combating this disease,
which not long ago was causing the death
of one person in every seven in the entire
population of the earth. Recent statistics
gathered from 20 of our principal cities,
100000 inhabitants, show
that since 1888 the tubercular death rate
in those places has decreased 33 per cent.
The mortality can be decreased far more
by the dissemination of knowledge, better
sanitation, intelligent care of the sick, and
the proper disposal of the dead.