The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-08-08
URGES MUNICIPAL LEGISLATION
TO STAMP OUT CONSUMPTION.
Doctor Max g. SarOf and Doctor
losis lis Causes and Preventives
Deaths Are Traceable to the Should
Insist Very Careful Dsinection.

his report shows that 13as deaths resulted
from tuberculosis. of which I.Oi6 deaths
were caused by pulmonary tuberculosis or
consumption. Figuring that the average
| life of "A person afflicted with tuberculosis
| Is about eight years, the doctor finds that
| at present there are 10.S2f cases of the dis
| ease in St Louis. These figures are not
! given as representing all the cases of the
disease or deaths from IL in st. Louis
Further. the doctor says:
THE difficulty in obtaining correct stats
tics of deaths from tuberculosis is becom-
ing greater each year. principally on ac-
count of the attitude of the insurance COM
panies many of which refuse to pay poll
cies when tuberculosis is written the
cause of death in the death certificates
He believes that the subject Of the re-
duction of mortality from tubercular dis
ease. both from an economic and a human
ltarian point OF view. ought to receive the
earnest consideration of all lawmakers.
The report states that it has been proved
that the living germs called tubercle
bacilii are the cause. and the only cause II
consumption These germs. when taken
into the body. multiply and produce
growths which tend 70 soften, and the dis
charge from these softened tubercles con-
tanning living germs. Is thrown from the
body.
"Diseasc Is PrcventnbIc."
These points are emphasized:
tuberculosis is a communicable disease
and distinctly preventable. 1t is not direct
ly inherited. 1t is acquired by direct
transmission OF the tubercle bacillus from
the sick to the healthy. usually by means
of dry and pulverized sputum bloating as
dust in the air."
These measures Of protection are advised:
Rigid inspection Of cattle.
Dissemination among the people OF the
knowledge that every tubercular person may
be a source Of actual danger to his associ-
ates IL the discharges from his lungs are
| not Immediately destroyed or rendered
harmless
Careful disinfection of rooms and hos
pital wards that are occupied or have been
occupied by consumptives.'
Doctor Amand Ravold. whose office is at
No. 2s0o Morgan street. and who is asso-
ciated with the Board of Health Is a
tuberculosis expert who is thoroughly ac-
quainted with the disease and the many
remedie, he having Travelled all over Eu-
rope and the United States in his study of
tuberculosis. He says:
"All the treatments that have ever been
exploited have gone the same way. Evsr
Professor Koch's treatment has failed, and
he Is known in the profession as the king
| OF bactericlogists.
tuberculosis is preventable, but man
must not spit on the streets and the floor.
Second, IL is durable. We find evidences
| dissect. but many have died from other dis
eases-
People can only be cured when properly
cared for. A corEumptive cannot do business
and be cured man with typhoid fever
does not work. but goes to bed and rests.
The coEumptive. because his disease Is
slow. keeps on. No wonder he does not
improve. The first essential being rest, the
second thing Is open air and sunshine.
Foreign Methods Of Treatment.
I'm the Alland Sanitarium. in the noun
tains north Of Vienna, the city has a hos
pital where all patients sleep in the open
air. breathing the balsamic air from the
pine woods. Every patient expectorates into
bottle and destroys the sputum. Six weeks
In this hospital tells whether a case is cur
able or not. and IL It is not the patient is
sent back to Vienna Fifty per cent Of the
cases get well.
Besides the sputum conveyed to the air
by expectoration there is another way to
convey the disease. which is by coughing,
when a fine spray is thrown out several feet.
When coughing a consumptive should hold
handkerchief to the mouth and expec-
torate into bottle. which can be carried
in the pocket. II We can get rid of the
dried sputum We can wipe out consump-
ton"
Neither he nor Doctor Starkloff seems to
have much faith in Professor Koch's latest
declaration that the germs OF tuberculosis
are not communicable from persons to cat
tie or from cattle to persons.