Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1904-08-18

The Self-Cure OF consumption by
Chas. II. Stanley Davis, MD, Phi.
d. Member of the Connecticut
State Med. Soc. Cloth, 12mo., 176
pp.; index. Z. B. Treat & Co., New
York; 75c.
A valuable, up.to date treatise on
the white plague" which has been
land is now) such scourge to human
ity. -Four hundred years before Christ
Hippocrates portrayed the symptoms
of consumption as clearly as they are
portrayed today.
II claims a fourth of all who die; g..
900 persons die OF this disease every
year in the State of Pennsylvania
alone. In Massachusetts in 40 years
over 100000 died of tuberculosis, and
| 1000 die there yearly now.
DR.. Biggs says that one-half OF the
entire population in New York City
acquires the disease at some period of
| life. DIR. Osler assures us that there
are 100000 cases OF phthisis in the
United States at all times, with more
than 150. 900 deaths each year. Every
day 5000. and each minute Of the day
3 persons die Of the disease. 1t Is es-
timated that at the present rate from
consumption 10000 900 or more OF the
$4,000. 900 people now living In the
United States will die OF this disease.
Dr. Davis says In his preface; "The
Idea that consumption Is an incurablc
disease Is still widely prevalent among
the people, but there Is no reason why
any person, not advanced beyond the
second stage, should die of the disease.
The object OF this book is to show how
consumption from its first beginnings
to its last stages, before actual decay
OF the lungs takes place, can be cured
In at least 95 per cent. of the cases,
and this without the use Of medicine"
Farther on, he says: until few
years ago the course OF tuberculosis
was unknown. Up to 1882, tuberculo.
sis was supposed to be specific, In
fictitious disease, but In that year DIR.
Robert Koch made the discovery that
changed the thought of the scientific
world. The bacilli are not only tho
cause of tuberculosis, but they are tho
only cause Of II; and there is no tuber.
culosis without bacilli.'
1T gains entrance to the body with
the food, and by direct incubation, but
most commonly by inhalation, and, In
consequence, the lungs are the most
frequent seat of the disease. The germ
dries, floats about In the air, and. be.
Ing taken into the lungs OF suscept.
ible person, finds lodgment and devel,
ops, giving rise to the disease. The
germs may remain for months In the
dust and debris of overcrowded homes.
In room occupied by tuberculous
patient the dust was shown to contain
virulent bacilli six weeks after her
death.
"Tubercle bacilli may be distributed
by direct contact as In the act of kiss.
ing or by means OF an infected spoon,
glass or other articles. or It may be
conveyed by means of the hands from
the handkerchief used by tuberculous
patients. Infection may occur by
young children who play about the
floor, and then suck their soiled fin.
gers. Bacilli have been found In the
dust Of pillows, railing and ceiling Of
berth In railroad car.
Anything that lowers the bodily
health, the vital resistance, makes q
soil for the tubercle bacilli, which, in
troduced into weakened body, with
little resisting power, finds its proper
I