The record-union., 1899-09-17

requiring courage, skill and great pa
tience for their solution. If it is agreed
to by the board, or a majority of it.
when it comes to the consideration Of
the matter that the fiot.1ing of con-
sumptives to this State because of the
mildness of the climate is a menace
| to the public health, and will result in
spreading the disease generally among
the people, then the logical, sensible
and direct way of doing will be OBJ
vious, namely, entry upon the policy Of
exclusion.
If, ON the other hand, it is resolved
that the coming of consumptives is un-
Objectionable as long as they are Sc
questered isolated and kept from COM
| ing into congregations of the people,
voiding their sputum upon the high
way, then the thing to do is to require
passage of the necessary regulative
ordinances, and see to it that they are
rigidly enforced.
| In this way of treating the subject
! it will be observed that nothing what
/ ever is said Of the dangers of COM
municating the disease by mere move
ment of patients among the people
| where there is no voiding of sputum
or by contact within the family circle
| Whether there is danger of COM
municating the disease in the open air
by the passage of patients through
the streets and parks is an open ques-
| ton, one upon which scientists part
company, but all are agreed that a
consumptive in a family imperils the
lives of all the household. That tuber-
culosis is communicable by several
means, and is not confined to one. is
not now disputed by the faculty. AS
exclusion of patients from churches
halls, theaters, etc., is conceded to be
wise, it will be seen that the safe
way, if they are to be permitted to
come into the State at all, will be to
insist upon complete isolation of those
afflicted with the disease.
But that in a large number of cases
would be all but impossible, and would
seemingly border upon the cruel. For
natural instinct and family affection
will revolt upon any effort being made
| to gather consumptives to isolate them,
and thus take the afflicted from their
homes and the nursing and care Of their
families. Regulation, when it comes,
will probably pause at the household
hearth at first, but it will eventually
| invade it. If the consumptive is iso-
lated at home, then it will probably
satisfy the demand for regulation for
a time, but only for a time. For to
permit even so much of means to scat
ter the disease as is found in exposure
of child to parent and wife to husband
will be to leave a gate open that must
be closed: for it is the inmates of the
home who suffer most from the menace
of contamination.
One member of the State Board OF
Health, therefore, goes so far as to say
that the same or similar measures
adopted in cases of smallpox, cholera
and yellow fever should obtain with
cases Of tuberculosis. This means re-
moval of all such patients to a COM
mon place of residence, to there be
! treated or remain until they die The
same physician would prohibit the
transportation of consumptives in the
same cars in which the general public
ride, and insists that they should travel
in cars specially prepared for them.
Especially should the regulative or
dinanees be enforced against those in
the secondary stages of the disease,
when a single patient, according to one
physician, expectorates daily millions
Of the seeds Of the disease that annu-
ally kills more people than smallpox,
cholera and yellow fever
One proposition to come before the
Board Of Health is that of sanitaria
for consumptives. It is said that in
such institutions from to IS per cent.
recover or lose the bacilli of the dis
ease, and this saving can be largely
augmented when we get control of al
consumptive patients and treat. them
in quarters prepared especially for the
purpose. 1t is charged by the mover
of the resolution to consider that the
disease complained Of is rapidly spread
ing in the State; that the native born
are taking it in large numbers, and
therefore action cannot be too early.
The fighting line over which this
whole question is to be debated will
be drawn at the proposition to quaran-
tine against the incoming of those hav-
ing tuberculosis. On that issue the
question will have hot contention. For
not all physicians are prepared to sup
! port the exclusion idea Some have
already expressed the thought that ex-
clusion is impracticable and visionary,
indeed well nigh impossible, and that
While quarantine would be of immeas-
urable benefit to the people of the
State, there are insurmountable objec-
tions to it,
But these DIRECTORS freely admit that
a modified form of quarantine might
we'll be adopted, but just what the
notifications shall consist of is not
stated. One thing is the verdict of all
the scientists, that unless we take some