St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-06-15

StdDle SHOulu TO DC kept up TO on ue-
grees." This is an impossibiity, and
have the air fresh and life-giving.
always feel chilly when stay in an i'll
ventilated room, as do not get oxygen
enough to keep up the fire. No oxygen,
no fire. tits the oxygen that exhilarates
us when we sniff the cool breezes. We
are colder in an ill-ventilated room at 40
degrees than at 20 degrees out in the
open air, where the lungs have all the
oxygen they want, to burn up the car
bonaceous matter in the system, there
by keeping up animal heat. To be shut
up in an iil-ventilated room is like shut
ting off the draft in the stove. No oxy-
gen, no fire.
1t is my belief that tight barns are the
cause OF our having so much tuberculo-
Sis and until the farmers are taught, yes,
compelled to properly ventilate their
barns, we shall have tuberculosis. The
Amherst barn was good illustration of
this. A new case appeared as soon as
they got rid of the old one. Do we
wonder why the cows were better in
summer than in winter? Did you ever
hear of horse having tuberculosis ?
Why? Because it hasa good ventilation
through the feeding chute right by his
nose. Then he is taken out and driven,
causing him to expel all dead air and fill
its place with life-giving air. Did any one
ever hear ola Texas steer having this
disease? Why? Because they are al
ways breathing life-giving instead of the
death-giving air of our nice tight barns.
think the assertion that tuberculosis
is contagious, under proper sanitary
conditions, is most unwarranted asser-
tion of the bacteriologist. The most
contagious diseases are, one and all,
without exception, acute selflimiting
maladies, which, when uncomplicated
leave behind no trace Of functional dis
ability, structural or organic disease !;
on the contrary, are chronic, continuous
and progressive. They depend chiefly
upon pathologic alterations in the quail
ity, quantity and circulation of the life
giving medium-the blood.
II consumption was contagious dis
ease, the mortality from that source
alone would exceed all the other contagi-
GUS disorders united. But nurses, physi-
clans, members of the same family, in
daily attendance, washerwomen, rag
dealers, escape unharmed. Itistrue that
sometimes when consumption once enters
family several may have it, because
they are under the same sanitary inhu.
ences as bacilli germs exist everywhere,
and as consumptive persons sputum
contains millions of these germs, which,
when dry, float in the air. The long
dresses of women are nice things to set
them floating. We breath in this air,
and il we have any dead matter (soil) in
the lungs they make Judgement and
grow rapidly, but if person has no
dead soil they soon die.
Physicians usually like to find the
cause. and taking that away, the disease
usually disappears. Let us take away
the primary cause and the disease dis
appears. 1t is certain that so long as we
have ill-ventilated barns we shall have
the disease. no matter how many cows
you kill. The question is: What is to
be done? The answer is simple: Let the
Board ofHealth ofthe state or the towns
appoint competent men to visit every
barn and dictate to the farmers how
their barns shall be ventilated, and il
any badly diseased animals be found, let
them be killed, and all Others will get
well, under proper sanitary conditions.
1t does not seem to me to be good pol
icy to blot out so much valuable proper
ty. The cost would be small compare
lively. There are many things more !
would like to say, but fear I am taking
too much space in your valuble journal.
Since writing the above, have been
called to see an old lady who, about 10
years ago, buried two sons and two
daughters in short space OF time, they
dying OF consumption. She incidentally
remarked that she had to do all the
nursing, as they did not want any one
else. The other members OF the family
were married and came and went, but
never caught it, or the parents. There
were two sick at time, yet no one else
caught the disease, as they would have
done if they had come in contact with
persons having contagious diseases.
From the above facts, and many more
l could cite, it does seem to me that the
law should be changed and fresh air
tested before destroying so much valua.
BILE property.-[L. w. Curtis, M. D.,
Southbridge, Mass, in Health Culture.