Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-11-02
CAUSE AND PREVENTION
OF LUNG CONSUMPTION
Copyright. 1906. by w. R. Hearst.l
BY Charity ORGANIZATIONS Committee.

Copyright, 1905, by w. r. Hearst)
We have seen that the cause of consumption is a
minute germ and that this germ coughed up in greater
or less number by consumptives, once it gains Judgement
in the bodies of other persons will in turn give them
consumption.
This great discovery, which, like all great discoveries,
seems so simple after it has been made, has put CON
sumption with certainty among the diseases which can
be prevented.
1t is no longer the mysterious thing, the avenging
scourge that for many centuries of the worlds history it
was thought to be.
We are no more battling with an unknown and un-
seen enemy. but with a foe whose strength we know we
can by determination, skill and strength finally over
come.
After all, far reaching as the effects of this disease
are, and varied as are the causes which put the human
body in a condition to become an easy prey to the germ
of consumption, it must be constantly borne in mind that
the cause of consumption, without which it is impossible
to acquire consumption, is the germ of consumption.
Suppose a consunptive splits on the sidewalk-let us
see what happens. The sputum may contain no germs, or
i may contain several thousand germs.
In the latter case, the germs, though alive, are harm
less so long as they are wet, because they can not then
be blown about; but soon the spit becomes dry through
exposure to the air and sunlight or through being carried
off in small quantities on shoes or skirts,
Now begins it's career of death and destruction. The
mass of spit becomes pulverized. the minute germs often
attaching themselves to dust particles to be blown about
with currents of air or stirred up by sweeping.
Then the germ, which, while lying still or on its
travels through the air, has been keeping within Itself
its energy and power of reproduction, at last finds its
resting place within some human body, where it at once
begins a struggle between the ingenious natural safe
guards which protect the delicate human mechanism and
this grasping, hungry germ with its wonderful ability for
growth.
Dust and dirt and their removal play an important
part in this tragedy, for it is upon these particles that
the germs are often carried about. Dust and dirt weaken
the lungs, the organs of the body most frequently affected
by tuberculosis.
The prevention of needless dust and the proper re-
moval OF dirt are accordingly of high importance as means
to the prevention of consumption.
The usual dry sweeping and busting and the clean
ing of streets without preliminary s%prinkling are active
agents in spreading consumption. This is no theoretic
matter. but one amply shown by experiment and proof.
How often do we see in busting" a process which
simply strs up the dust and the germs quiet on exposed
surfaces, setting them floating in the air to gradually
settle in out of the way places, where they remain un-
seen and living ready to give birth too countless myriads
of their kind when at last they shall gain entrance TO
the human body?
The proper method is to use damp cloths instead OF
busters, to sprinkle wooden floors with water or wet saw
dust and carpets or rugs with coarse salt. tea leaves,
wet paper or something of the sort, to sprinkle or flush
streets before sweeping them, and to carry away the
sweepings and the refuse and ashes from houses in coy
cred wagons.
However the cleaning is done, the main object should
be to get the dirt and dust not aaoat, but away.
Splitting is dangerous to the public health and must
be controlled.
Health ordinances must declare it unlawful and
health authorities must prosecute and our magistrates
must punish those who thus wilfully or carelessly endan-
ger their fellow men.