The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-08
A DEADLY INCREASE.

The question of consumption is more
and more occupying attention through
out the world, and publications on the
mainland are devoting much space to
= campaign upon the dangers of the
disease. An able paper on the subject
comes from the pen of DR.. John H.
Girdner, and appears in Munsey for
for March. In his concluding sentence
DIR. Grdner gives note of warning
which has been echoed in these col
umns again and again. He says, Med
ical science has practically stamped out
smallpox and typhus fever, and they
hold cholera and yellow fever at bay.
They are now steadily and surely gain
ing Roadway in a crusade against a foe
greater than all-tuberculosis"
II is a foe greater than all. 1t is
by far the greatest enemy we have to
contend with here, and beyond one in
stance, where a dying consumptive was
removed from a crowded tenement
house, and allowed to die in a room at
the Kerosene detention camp, we have
done nothing towards fighting it back
in the human race, though we have
fought fight against it among tuber-
culOus cattle, slaughtering those that
have the disease.
That consumption is steadily increas-
ing in Honolulu can be clearly demon
strated. That 1t is increasing through
out the group can be surmised, but can.
not be proved, in so much as the Board
of Health supplies no mortuary sta
tistics outside of Honolulu district. Blu
taking the Honolulu district during the
last three years we find for 1897 that
there were SO deaths from consumption
in 1898 there were 102, and in 1899 there
were 129, while for the first two month:
of 1900 there have been SO deaths from
consumption, and if that rate is KEEP
up through the year, we shall reach {
total of ZIG
Now the exact reverse is going on il
New York. According to the statistics
given by DIR. Girdner, which extent
from 1886 to 1897, there has been
steady decrease, and this is largely du
to campaign of the New York Boar,
of Health in relation to the cessation
and prevention of consumption. Cir
culars were sent to practising physic
ians and to the hospitals, calling at
tention to the danger of infection b!
the sputa of consumptive patients, anC
giving specific directions how to pre-
vent the spread of the disease. Wher,
patients were discovered in the tene
ment house districts, inspectors viste,
them and taught them the danger o
indiscriminate expectoration.
The New York board has not, how
ever arrived at being able to stamp on
the disease, but it has reduced the mum
Der of deaths. In 1886 the number o
deaths from consumption were 442
There is from this period to 1897
steady decrease, coming down to 2S5 70
that year When we consider what tn
population of New York is, what it
climate is, and what disadvantages tn
people in crowded tenement houses liv
under the steady increase of deaths
from consumption, and the ratio o
deaths to our population, is one tina
is certainly appalling, and merits inves
tigation. We are fighting plague, bu
the plague has not claimed a 1.-THE O
the victims that consumption has.
There is another point about con
sumption in this city. For the pas
three years the number of deaths frou
the disease have headed the list. Il
1897 there were SO deaths from it, an,
no other disease came anywhere nea
that number. In 1898 when there wa
an epidemic of typhoid fever in tn
camps the deaths from that cause wer
81, and caused general alarm, but thos
from consumption were 102 and no on
thought anything about it. Consump
ton headed the list last year, and vii
undoubtedly head it this year. Whel
will people begin to realize that it /
a disease which can be fought and con
quered?