The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1900-05-10

Mr.. President and Gentlemen AS
your reporter, would call your attention
to subject now more than ever before
our profession-the study and observa-
tuberculin In any form has become estab-
lished as remedy. No specific has yet
been discovered. The discovery has been
that there is no specific for this disease,
strictly as such up-to-date. Our chief
dependence is pure air, out of door exer-
else, living in dry climate, nourishing
diet, avoiding unhealthy occupation and
excuses of every kind.
The question of contagion Is now being
discussed. Birds and animals are sup
posed to contract and communicate the
tubercular germ to persons, but this Is
not fully proved.
1t is stated that that the canary Is a
dangerous bird, as it is liable to have
a cough or hoarseness when it sings.
When it flutters in its cage it may shake
the germs from It's wings. The idea that
our household pets may give us consump-
tlon is more fanciful than real.
1t would be unfortunate If the sensa.
tional press should publish this theory in
their startling language, for the great
public is sufficiently frightened already.
An English contemporary says it has
been found necessary in some parts of the
U. S. to direct the attention of the legis-
lature to the desirability of prohibiting
indiscriminate kissing. Not 80 much In
the interest Of morality or In deferance
to the constituencies of Mrs. Grundy, but
with view of checking the spread OF
this disease.
He probably bad in mind the indelicate
habit some boys and girls have Of swap
ping gum when they kiss. We have an
account of an oficious official who re-
fused to permit the remains of person
who had died of consumption to be taken
into church for the funeral. We imagine
that exciting the fears of the ignorant
much harm may be done by sounding
such alarms remember when tomatoes
came into greater use as food some one
of supposed authority announced in the
press that if eaten they would cause can.
Ger. Another that cundurango would
cure cancer. Another that kerosene
would cause dlphtheria. Another that q
horse chestnut carried in the pocket
would prevent rheumatism. The people
question us as those of authority about
such reports as found in the papers.
An old person once told me that in hel
earlier days she had a disease of the liver
that it wasted away and her doctor gave
medicine which caused new liver tc
grow.
She feared that this one would disap
pear also. "What do you suppose it was
that he gave me?" she asked. q did moi
want to give the doctor away.) She must
die for want of that medicine, she thought
as her doctor had gone before her with
his remedy. The California State Board
of Health have under consideration the
propliety of quarantining against the
coming into the state of persons as well
as animals who have tuberculosis.
They have reached the extreme idea oil
its contagiousnees. This will cause need.
less injustice and distress. The theory
of its great contagiousness will be modi.
fed have no doubt.
Did you ever have case Of phthisis
when you were sure it was directly com.
municated from another person; case
in which there could be no question about
it?
But rather have you not been reason.
ably satisfied that the father or mother
who died of phthisis transmitted pre-.
disposition or scrofulous diathesis rather
than the tubercle bacillus to their chill
dren, one after the other dying many
years after being separated from each
other and living within healthy envir
| onment?
Rheumatism at the present time Is no
considered contagious or caused by {
rheumatic germ, but rather an auto-poi
son; though the children Of rheumatic
parents develop the disease more readily
even II their occupation Is not SO favor
able to it's development. This leads tt
the fact that in all respects we precisel,
represent our parents near and remote.
No one has the olive complexion of tn.
Latin race unless he has strain of bloot
of that race. We hardly know ourselves
OF the complications of our makeup In
heriting from that long line of diverse an
cestry going back into the prehistoric
past the good and the bad.
We inherit mental qualities that we dit
not know we possessed until the occasion
brings it out. Did Admiral Dewey know
that he had the capability of doing 81
great work? Did Gen. Grant know
that he had within him mental ability o
$50 high order until the occasion brough
it out, mental capacity to succeed whel
others lacking it would have failed? A
long ago as 1870 Huxley In his presiden
tial address to the British association
was able to say that 1t appeared to hin
aoithin certain Limitations that the doctrin
of biogenesis that life proceeds from lif
only was victorious along the whole line
These limitations were, he said, that
he could have been witness Of the earl
stages of the earth's history when tn
physical and chemical conditions wer
different from those that now hold, b
would have expected to see the evolution
of living protoplasms from non-livin
matter. But soere they different? Herbel
Spencer says, 1.-THE formations of organi
matter and the evolution of life In 1t
lowest forms may go on under existin
cosmical conditions, but believing it NOR
likely that the formation of such matte
and such forms took place at time whe
the heat of the earth's surface was fallin