The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-05

whatever has been planted for the
harvest. But if the far-,,er is lazy
or ignorant and the seed poor the
hemlock thrives at the expense of the
wheat and soon cripples the field 1t
becomes a hunchback field.
Consumption of the Spine.
1t is as though the hand had been
cut. Left to itself the cut would heal
up But if, after the cutting an i'm
purity is injected. blood poisoning IN
one form or another Will ensue.
The poison that produces hunchback
is the bacilli of tuberculosis, the germ
of consumption. For hunchback Is
simply consumption of the spine, iden-
tically the same thing as consumption
of the lungs In one case the disease
attacks the lung tissue. In the other
it attacks the bone structure of the
back.
The rug that has been beaten may
have been in the sick room of con-
sumptive. The germs lodged in ii, re-
leased by the beating. float in tae air.
A few doors or a few blocks away is
the child that has had its back bone
bruised. The bruise is healing nicely,
and under ordinary conditions no dam
age would be done. But unfortunately
it is a strenuous child. as the doc
uors say. that is, a child with a weak
constitution, growing in an unnatural
unhealthy way, as potatoes sometimes
grow and sprout when they stand in
an lily lighted cellar. The germs re-
leased from the rug outdoors float into
the room. They are breathed in by the
injured child and by its small brother
alike. The brother, being healthy and
strong. expels the germs in a natural
way. But the child with the injured
back, being strenuous lacks this
power. The germs travel through the
system, enter the blood and make the
circuit of the body. BY and by they
reach the spot in the spine where the
bruise lies. Nature is busily at work
repairing the damage done some days
before. Millions of new cells have
formed The Inflammation produced
in all healthy healing is in full swing.
Here are all the conditions necessary
to the Judgment and growth and
cultivation of the poison germs. In
healthy, fully formed tissue they can
not exist. Even in a strenuous" child
the cells of life in unbruised parts of
the body are too strong for them. But
this new forming tissue is weak and
the bacilli come to a stop in their cir
culation through the system. They
have found soil in which they can
thrive. and they take hold at once.
Germs Seek Weakest Spot.
If, instead of having met with an
accident to its back a few days before,
the child had contracted cold, result
ing in an Inflammation of the lungs,
the germs floating in from the rug out
of doors or the germs cultivated in the
impure milk from tuberculosis COWS
would have brought consumption. AS
it is. the lungs being sound, the germs
passed through them without finding
1odgment and settled in the backbone.
The result is tuberculosis or con-
sumption of the spine otherwise called
Potts disease.
1t is at this point, or very shortly
thereafter, that the responsibility of
the family physician begins. 1t rests
entirely with him whether the little
patient shall be cured, or whether a
hopeless cripple shall pass out of his
hands. For, once the hunchback
exists, nothing and nobody can cure it.
Up to a certain point the deformity
may be improved. The hump may be
reduced by modern methods of surgery,
but complete restoration is impossible.