The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-04-27

sideration in DR.. Hansen's address.
Norway has a naturally bracing eli
mate, and the air conditions are of the
finest, yet for a period of thirty years
in the district of Bergen alone, it has
increased so per cent. We have seen at
what a terrible rate tuberculosis is ad-
vancing in Honolulu alone, where sta
tistics of death are kept. Far more
victims have been claimed by consump-
ton since the first of the year than
have been claimed by plague, and it is
disease ever increasing, and working
its way into the very vitality of the
people. What it may do on the other
Islands we have no means of knowing,
since no statistics are kept, but we do
know that on the Island of Kauai a
very large majority of the cattle are
suffering from tuberculosis, and from
that and other signs we may be salts
fled that tuberculosis is on the increase
in the outer districts, as it is in Homo
lulu.
We have no accurate published sta
tistics of the ages of deaths from con-
sumption here, but the presumption is
that there can be no difference between
this and other countries. The disease
fastens upon the flower of the race. AS
will be noticed in DR.. Hansen's address,
more than half the deaths occurring
between 10 and 80, were from consump-
ton, and when one thinks that with
care consumption is quite preventable,
and the number of deaths can be reduc-
ed to minimum, it is no wonder that
from every part of the world comes a
warning note.
Another thing is noticeable, and that
is that from commercial point of view
the German invalid insurance compa-
MES find it to their interest to erect pub
lie sanatoriums for consumptives. OF
the sanatoriums of Germany a very full
account was given in a series of articles
published in The Star in 1899. 1t was
from them that the true treatment,
known as the open-air treatment, was
learned. But if insurance companies in
Germany find it to their advantage to
erect sanatoriums it may be safely pred
icated that insurance companies else
where will strive to protect themselves
in like manner. We are only at the
beginning of the fight with tuberculo-
sis; there have been warnings in plenty,
and the nations of the earth are waking
up to the practicability of the struggle,
and we may yet see statistics of death
/ from this disease decreasing instead of
increasing.
Lastly, the learned Bergen doctor
gives strong advice as to the need of
cleanliness, and under this head says
that efforts should be particularly d.
rected against the habit of expectorat-
| ing. In this a large number of people
on these Islands will doubtless agree.
The habit of expectorating is largely in
dulged in here. Our tram cars are often
covered with expectorations. Such a
thing is not allowed in public vehicles
away from here, and there is no valid
reason why it should be here. But it
is not only in the cars, though it is
probably more offensive there than any
where else, on the streets, in the stores,
on the wharves, the habit is universal,
and there is no denying that it is high
ly dangerous. 1t is one of the most
fertile sources of the spread of tuber-
culosis, and it is probably one of the
very hardest habits to combat,
No one need say that there has been
lack of warning over tuberculosis.
Medical men and laymen have sounded
the tocsin of alarm. The monthly death
( statistics are there for everyone to read,
and to mark, and some day the fight
/ against it will be taken up against it as
/ earnestly as it has against other con-
tagious diseases.