The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-13

What more fanatical frenzy ever
signalized the common human instinct
for sensationalism than the present
great ado being made about yellow
fever? And while we would not dis
credit the efforts of our city and state
authorities for the quarantine and sys-
tenn of sanitation now in vogue in view
of the present yellow fever situation
especially for the sake of the over-sen-
sitive and scary, yet when contemplate
ing the greater danger OF tuberculosis,
which Is ever in our midst, carrying
off annually so large a percentage OF
or people, producing one-seyenth of all
the mortality among us, 1t does seem
a little like an ounce of prudence and
a pound of folly for them to raise such
hubbub about few cases of fever hum
dreds of miles away AMI at the same
time overlook and neglect as they do
the great danger Of consumption
which is in our very doors all the
while. With our present knowledge
of the mode of Infection from yellow
fever, every one knows that with a
little discretion and the use of gloves
and mosquito netting they can make
themselves immune to it's dangerous
infection. But what prophalactic can
be used against consumption? What are
our civil authorities and boards of
health doing to shield us from its
havoc? Absolutely nothing.
Does It not, therefore, seem a little
strange to see our people with their
eyes glued to the telescope Turned on
New Orleans, magnifying the dangers
of yellow fever there when they never
use that instrument to look at the
nearer and more terrible danger ever
confronting us at home except with
their eyes at the big end OF the
thing to make our danger look as
small and far away as possible,
while every breath Of air we
inhale is full of the germs of infec-
tious death? Even typhoid is more to
be dreaded by us than yeHow fever,
and yet what little precautions do we
exercise In guarding our own lives
against typhoid or consumption-the
latter the most fatal of all maladies?
No sanitary laws are made or invoked
to prevent its spread. No improved
methods of treatment are practiced by
the ordinary physicians. No protests
are made by medical boards against
the sale of worthless patent medicines
which are but advertised by the maxi
ers to sell, but not to cure. No special
hospitals or quarantine stations are
provided for victims of this dreadful
disease, and yet we all know that con-
sumption is a contagious disease and
statistics prove that it is at once the
most common and fatal Of all human
maladies.
But we do not write these lines In
depreciation Of anybody. nor to cast
sensure upon our civil authorities. Our
only reason for calling attention to the
matter is that at this time, when the
public thought is 30 earnestly engaged
In contemplation Of the yellow fever
epidemic is that some possible good
may be accomplished by diverting that
attention in part to the subject OF
plague that is ever stalking unmolested
in our midst and against whose raw
ages no age nor sex is exempt, and
while doing SO, to offer some light OF
hone and some comforting facts for
those victims upon whom the deadly
vampire of consumption has already set
NJ seal and begun his work OF de-
nstion. But for lack OF space we
90 not now offer any suggestions as