Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-23
MORNING. NOVEMBER
TUBERCULOSIS


IN ROM Brooklyn comes an official
report that 1000 cases Of tuber-
= culosis. in various stages of prog
ress, have been recorded in that city.
In other boroughs of the city of New
York there are said to be about 10000
cases, and in the remainder of New
York state another 10000. This would
give the state an average of one tuber-
culous patient to every 100 of popula-
state department of health to Governor
Hughes and cannot be questioned.
They are appalling.
| 1t has become a recognized scientific
fact that in its incipiency every case
Of tuberculosis is possibly durable.
New York are in the first stages. and
therefore possibly durable, the statis-
tics quoted do not show. But unfor-
tunately for most of this class--even
unfortunately for the race, 1t may
truthfully be said--almost everything
depends upon the idiosyncrasies of the
patients. While some are too poor to
avail themselves of the best medical
SKILL others neglect themselves until
the disease has progressed to a stage
from which no permanent relief is
obtainable.
1t is common saying that a sufferer
from no other disease is so hopeful of
getting better SOON than is the aver
age consumptive. Thousands die annu-
ally because of their own neglect, the
fruit of their ignorance. These should
know that the disease need not neces-
sarily prove fatal simply because Of the
lodgment of the tuberculous bacilli. If
proper treatment is received in the
incipient stages of the malady the
patient may be restored to normal
health, under ordinary conditions.
The chances are that there are ii
New York state many thousands of
cases of this fell disease that have not
been reported to the health authorities
because of the fact that it is rarely
that physician lacking broad expert
ence is able to define the trouble until
it has advanced beyond the preliminary
and possibly durable stage. Many cases
have come under the personal observa-
ton of the writer which make this con-
clusion inevitable. In thousands upon
thousands of cases-and there is no
doubt whatever of this fact-lives have
been sacrificed through the ignorance
of physicians who, not readily identify
ing the disease, have held out the hope
to patients that they were not afflicted
with pulmonary tuberculosis, but that
their trouble was a chronic cold ca
tarrh, bronchitis, laryngitis, trache-
tits or some other affection of the
air passages. Finally, when beyond
hope, the true nature of the dis
ease has been established. In other
cases-and these are far more common
than the average layman supposes-
the patient, profting by the expert
ences of others and unwilling to take
any unnecessary risks, has packed bag
and baggage and sought a more salu-
hrious climate, there to be informed by
physician broadly experienced in the
treatment of the disease that he has
tuberculosis and that he has not arrived
in the dryer, rarer air a day too soon.
Such as these are living monuments
to common sense. And the region from
western Kansas and the uplands of
Texas to eastern California contains
hundreds of thousands of them--live.
healthy men and women who probably
would be but memories today were it
not for their hardihood in Drawing the
sneer of some cocksure youngster and
actually taking their lives into their
own hands.