The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-02
NEGROES AND CONSU MPTION.
Louisiana Doctors Alarmed nj the Rapid
spread of the Disease.

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 3l.-At all recent
meetings of the Louisiana State Madical
Society the subject mainly discussed has
been tuberculosis, especially It's RAPID
spread among the negroes.
There has been an improvement, as re-
CARDS the disease among the whites. owing
TO better sanitary precautions, bn me doc-
tors warningly pointed out thar TINS I'M
provcment could not long CONT II the
infection remained 80 prevalent among
the negroes, who constitute practically
all the domestic servants.
The mortality from tuberculosis among
the negroes in New Orleans j. four times
a. great a. among the whites; in the country
parishes il IL fir ON six to ten times a. great.
What il worse il, that while the disease
is growing less prevalent among the whites
and the mortality Is lower. tuberculosis Is
spreading among the negroes and Is nearly
twice a. prevalent among them as II was
twenty years ago. The doctors all agree
that the most serious negro problem con-
fronting the whites to-day Is the sanitary
condition of the negro race.
At the Shreveport meeting of the LOUIS
lana Medical Society, il was stated by doc
tors who practice mainly in the black
families and among the negroes that at
the present rate of increase of Tuberculosis
among the negroes of Louisiana II was
simply question of time when the disease
would completely ex'erIninate the race
These doctors further agreed that the
disease presented many different charac-
teristCs among the negroes and among the
whites. In the Caucasian il was CHRONIC;
in the negro acute, being what Is pOpularly
ca He'd gallCping consumption.
II is sudden and volcanic, its duration
being measured in months. whereas among
the whites it il insidious and frequently
lasts for years. Another marked difference
in the two races Is that the white patient
a II Il NHl Il.
the negro is hopeless from the beginning.
Among the whites in Louisiana - per cent.
of the cases recover and so per cent improve
under good treatment DIR. j. VI, Barrier
of Richland parish, declared that he had
In his long practice seen improvement in
only two negroes suffering from consunlp-
ton. and both of these were mulattoe- Tie
had never seen "A full -blooded negro survive
consumption more than twelve months.
Report from eighty physicians showed that
80 per cent of negroes treated by them Tor
consumption died within the year and only
an infi'itesimal fracti ion showed any i'm
movement.
The doctors agreed that the spread Of
consumption among the negroes was du
TO irregular habits and ovcrcrowded and
urhygleiic surroundings.
The negro can eat or fas, sleep or not as
the white man cannot If a negro has plenty
he can outeat any white man living, il times
are hard he can Guido Tanner. In sugar
grimm y season III lIt sugar l'ldltltllbll
he will work five DAYS without sleep, secur-
ing double wages for the night watches;
then he will sleep thirty hours or more at
a stretch.
He will wear winter clothes in summer
and summer clot hes in winter. The penalty
of all these defances of nature Is injury TO
the constitution, and disease sooner or
later.
Still more serious il the defiance Of all
laws Of santiation, particularly IN the towns
where several families often occupy the
same tenement of three or four rooms,
with frequently six or eight persons in one
room. and perhaps in one bed A. conse-
quence, wher the first case of consumption
occurs in the tenement, it soon spreads,
and the entire family, or perhaps familie'.
are Infected and carried Of
The recommendations Of the doctors
in this matter were first TO teach the negro.
by "A mis-, iunary movement, the danger
of consumption and how To treat II; aud
secondly, Ia require the boards of health
To devote more attention 10 the sanitary
conditions of the negro quarters of the
southern towns.