The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-06-03
y PNEUMONIA SUPREME.
HAS SUCCEEDED CONSUMPTION
- AS WINTERS DEADLY
DISEASE.
u Is Now Generally Believed to Be
lnfectious-If More Walking We're
INDUCED in Bronchial Trouble
Would Not BE So Prevalent.

INDUCED in Bronchial Trouble
Would Not Be So Prevalent.
Among the pulmonary diseases,
pneumonia for some years has been
achieving deadly supremacy, espe-
cially in the large cities tuberculosis
OF the lungs no longer causes so many
deaths in New York, for example, as
.pneumonia, which works with terri
Die rapid1ty upon much the same It's
sues. We are now in the midst of
pneumonia season; and people in
tnis northeast section Of the country
are in the heart of the pneumonia
belt. Until April, or the last of March,
the danger from this disease will be
instantly lurking about us, and wise
People will SO far as possible, be on
their guard
In the two largest American cities
last week the death rate from pneu-
monia broke the municipal records. In
Chicago there were 1879 deaths and in
New York 172. The mortality in New
York the present week, from this one
Ill, is expected 70 go higher still. 1t is
significant, that while in New York
the general death rate the past year
has been the lowest in a century, the
rate for pneumonia, influenza and
Iconsumption" has shown no decline,
pneumonia alone carrying off nearly
5000 persons. That this disease, too,
appears to be particularly deadly
among persons of advanced years is
matter of common observation; and
there is some scientific confirmation
for this view in the fact that in New
York the past year the only increase
in the number of deaths has been
among people in age IS years or more.
II pneumonia is an infections dis
ease, as is now generally believed, its
: ravages in great centres of population
may have been increased and extended
on account of the modern system of
rapid transit. This, at any rate, is be-
ing advanced as a hypothesis to ac-
count for the marked increase of the
mortality from pneumonia at this sea-
son of the year, in places like Chicago
and New York, where millions of peo-
surface and elevated railroads. These
Gears also contain many persons with
colds the cars are often badly VEN
tilated, with polluted air, and some
times they are damp and low in tenn
p&rature. The complaint in New York
is that the cars are not warm enough
and that people become i'll because
they have been chilled.
Yet even warm cars are not the
healthiest places to be in for any
length of time at this season of the
year, especially when they are crowd
ed. The man who persists in riding
on the platform, where the air is fairly
s fresh, even if it is cold, may have
) fine method of seeming madness. 1t
is surely not very conducive to health
to bake over hot-air register in a
trolley car for half an hour and then
suddenly pass out into the open, where
the temperature is well below freezing.
If every one walked as in the good
old days, it is probable that pneu
monia and bronchial troubles would
not show such an alarming increase;
and this may be said without throwing
the blame for the conditions COM
planned of upon the trolley. City peo-
pie now walk far too little at any sea-
son of the year. A nickel is a small
sum, and the temptation to ride has
settled into a confirmed habit. 1t is
little realized, however, how much
good the habit of walking in winter
does for the physique in toughening it
to exposure, and thus warding off
colds, bronchial and pulmonary trou-
'bles Great numbers Of city people
who live in. the harsh winters of the
north temaerate zone have actually
become strangers to their own climate.
Instead of ''cultivating it," SO to speak,
as their ancestors were obliged to,
they have in a real sense deacclilna-
tized themselves. The most of their
time, day and night. is spent within
Fan area Of artificial heat Their
houses are always kept at an average
temperature of rs degrees to so de-
grees: when they start out to bust
ness or go shopping they allow them
selves but few minutes in the cold,
bracing open air, taking the ineyita-
BILE car, and then passing the rest of |
the time in hot offices and stores.
1t is literally true that hundreds of |
thousands of well-to-do people in our
'cities live indoors during our winters
at least % out of the "a hours And |
there they sit and steam and wonder
where they have caught such dreadful !
oo1,1c II &c q significant fact that |