Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-06-16

rate from consumption was APP
for every 10000; thirty years later
it was only 30.S1, and in 1902 it had
fallen to 1895. In the FIVE years
ending with 1896 the average annual
mortality was 27.1 per 10000 in
Massachusetts, and POP in Vermont,
while in the next five years it was
1873 in Massachusetts, and 1873 in
Vermont. The same tendency, but
to a less marked degree is noticea-
BILE in other states. In England
and certain continental countries
the statistics also show a progressive
decline. DR.. Abbott expresseses his
belief on the basis of these statistics
that a generation hence Prussia and
England at least will be practically
rid of tuberculosis.
The significant thing in these sta
tistics is that this most deadly of all
diseases has diminished with redoub-
led rapidity since its nature was
understood and that it is in the
countries hat have taken the great
est precautions against it that the
dimunition has been the most rapid.
The New York Tribune suggests that
the decline may come from greater
powers of resistance to tubercular
infection developed by mankind.
But while a similar development of
resisting powers has been suggested
to explain the comparative immunity
from some other infectious diseases
there is little or no basis for such an
explanation in the case of tubercu-
losis. In the case of several infec-
tious diseases this explanation has a
sound theoretical basis. 1t rests on
one of the broad principles of evolu-
ton and more specifically on the
development of the anti -toxins by
incubation. But it is also possible
that the changes may be due to vari-
ations in the vigor of the germ itself.
In certain diseases there have been
noticed marked fluctuations in the
severity of attacks during longer or
shorter periods. Scarlet fever, for
instance, has for some years been
becoming a much less severe and
dangerous disease, while measles
have become more severe. There
are also marked differences in the
severity of smallpox in different cpl
denies. The prevalence of vaccin-
alton has, perhaps, much to do with
this.
Nothing, however, has yet been
observed to indicate that tubercu-
losis is less severe or that it devel-
ops an anti toxin in its victims. A
successfully combated attack does
not appear to afford the least immun-
ity. 1t is possible, nevertheless,
that the race as a whole is becoming
less susceptible through the rapid
elimination of those individuals that
are susceptible.
Besides this process of elimina-
ton there are certain external fac
tors that help to explain the dimuni-
ton of tuberculosis. While the last
fifty years have witnessed a concen.
tration of population in cities and
the development of the congested
districts where tuberculosis finds a
congenial home it is also to be borne
in mind that, hand in hand with that
process, has gone a betterment of
sanitary and hygienic conditions that
may have more than counterbalanced
the evil effects of congestion. The
decline in municipal death
rates in European cities especially
since 1870 tends to support this
conclusion.
In recent years, since Koch iso-
lated the tuberculosis germ, the
has been intelligently directed
agaist this arch enemy of mankind.
The necessity for protective meas
ures, the proper measures to be
taken, the effectiveness of fresh air
and diet in curing the disease have
with other factors to has
Ten the decline in the mortality.
This conclusion is almost inevitable
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