The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-19

send out of the State for 1t if they 1 cant get it here" So, the ruinous
 work goes on and we, with the people, are standing complacently by with folded hands, scarcely note If warn
 ing ever raised or protest ever heard. Even the ministers of the gospel, who hurl their anathemas against the use
 patent medicines and drug addictions, that; Tn my Judgment, are doing incal- culably more harm. Too often they
 are the best friends the patent medi- cine vendor has, recommending and
 certifying to their virtues with is "a beal not according to knowledge" Let us credit them with kindly inten- tlons, though hardly excusable for be- ing altogether ignorant of the harm charge.
 In almost every State Legislature
 there has been introduced at some
 time or other a bill compelling patent
 medicine manufacturers to print on
 the label of each bottle or package the exact drugs used in the medicine there m In every case thus far has such bin been prevented from becoming a
 It may be a long time ere such partial relief may come; in the mean time what world of influence the physician can quietly exert in his ly and reasonable warning to those whose confidence he holds.
 Consideration of COnsumptiOn.
 now approach a subject which is attracting more attention from the gen | eral public from a social and economic standpoint and problem of more ab- sorbing interest to the physician from q medical and humanitarian aspect
 than all others combined, the con sideration of methods and means for | the prevention and cure of tuberculo- | sis
 I am indebted to a Hand Book on | the Prevention of T1IharnnlnciSif h. l lished by the Charity Organization 1 Society of New York for some of the | data used in this paper.
 For thousands of years this great
 plague has hung like a pail over the
 earth and has killed more people than l all wars and pestilences combined.
 As late as twenty-fiv years ago mankind stood face to face with this | disease hopeless and helpless. It's | cause was unknown. it's onset was SO | insiduous that the fate of it's victims l was commonly sealed while the nature 1 Of the malady was undiscovered. Pre-
 ventive measures were wanting: the | shadow of sorrowful belief in here 1 ditary taint lay heavily upon many | families; medical treatment availed lit | tie The task of the physician was
 chiefly to lead the hopeless as gently | as might be to their final rest. | In 1SS2. Koch discovered the tuber- 1 cue bacillus and demonstrated the fact
 that tuberculosis was an infectious and | communicable disease. It followed as | a necessary result from his discoveries
 that it was an absolutely preventable disease.
 So slowly, however did the insig- nifcance of these discoveries penetrate l the minds of the profession and people | that already over twenty years have passed and only just of late have limit cd. inonecutal efforts been made for its l suppression.
 We still view with comparative in- difference a disease which. 1t is com
 puted Jftets in a latent or active form more than one-half of the human race causing the death annually in the world of 1.O95, 900 and in the United States l60, 000. killing One-third of these l.between the ages of 15 and 45 years. | These victims are taken away at their | most productive period and in most in- stances they leave those dependent