Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-11-27
Monday, November q, 1905.
A Tuberculosis Exposition.

a IubercutoSiS EXPOSITION.
The latest in the exposition line is the
Tuberculosis exposition which opens its
doors to the public, today, at the
American Museum of Natural History,
New York OF course, it is far from
an exposition in the common sense of
that word, but it is rather a school to
help in educating the public in ways Of
fighting that terrible disease, consump-
ton, which killed no fewer than 10000
Americans. last year. In speaking of
this coming exposition, an eminent New
York physician has pictured the raw
ages of consumption in the following
dramatic way:
In more than 400 homes of this coun-
try there are lamentations and woe
tonight; husbands for their WIVES
wives for their husbands, parents 1or
their children, children for their par
ents. A mere repetition of yesterday
calamities! And if the ears OF your
hearts are opened you can hear as L
speak the beating of the wings OF the
angels of death Fastening to the 4Oo APP
pointed for tomorrow. The present
crusade against tuberculosis, wnlch Is
destined to achieve results we niue
dream of. has three specific opJects'
first, educatiOnal-the instruction OF TIE
profession and the instruction Oh the
people; second, preventive-the promo
ton of measures which will check the
progress of the disease in the COM
munity; third, curative-the STUDY Oh
methods by which the progress or the
disease in individuals may be arrested.
In its most important aspects the prob
lem OF tuberculosis is home problem.
In an immense proportion of all cases
the scene of the drama is the home; on
its stage the acts are played, whether TO
the happy issue of a recovery or to the
dark ending of a tragedy so common
place as to have dulled our appreciation
of it's magnitude"
1t is declared that at least SO per cent.
of the deaths caused by the tubercle
bacillus could be prevented if the peo-
pie knew how to kill or avoid it.
Nearly every great city of the world
has for several years past tried to
teach its citizens these things, and in
many of them remarkably promising
results have been obtained. New York,
for instance. has reduced its yearly toll
to this parasite over 20 per cent. in ten
years. Many sapatoriums have been
erected, one of them here in Maine.
where the hope of cure rests largely on
the open air treatment.
In spite of all that the doctors can
do, however. in spite of the active cam
paign of education waged by the news
papers all over the world. there are still
thousands of people who know about
the so-caIed open-air treatment of
consumption only in a very hazy and
general way. For instance, home
patients idea of sleeping with the VIM
dows open has frequently been found to
be two or three inches of fresh air I'M
der the bottom sash, and even this
moiety of ventilation was reduced on
cold or damp nights. The coming
exhibition is intended primarily to give
the laity actual object lessons i'll treat
ment: to supplement written and oral
descriptions and instruction by actual
models or pictures of the conditions
sought in the new Cure" not only to
tell them how, but to show them how.
1t Is hoped to make the exhibition even
tually a permanent one in New York,
where the treatment in all its details
will be illustrated in such a way that
any person can by few visits master
that of some member of his family.