Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-03-01
THE WHITE PLAGUE.
THE NATION AWAKENS TO CON-
SYMPTOMS RAvAGES.
1t Causes One Death in Nine Germs At
tack Poor Oftenest Nature Provides Cure
Pure Air. Sunshine. Abundant Food and
Gentle Exercise.

~ $duSeS Vic OcatH IN Vine - UefmS AT
tack Poor Oftenest- Nature Provides Cure
Pure Air. Sunshine. Abundant Food and
Gentle Exercise.
A Washington dispatch of the 14th
inst, embracing the opinion of Fred
erick ]. Haskin, who has made con-
sumption and statistics regarding
the disease a careful study, says:
tuberculosis may well be called the
Great White Plague" More peo-
pie have died from it than were killed
in all the wars that men have fought.
1t is appalling to think that one out
of every nine persons in the United
States dies from this dread disease.
In fact one death in every four that
occurs between the ages of twenty
and fifty is due to tuberculosis. The
number of people who die from this
cause in the United States is equal
to the combined mortality from peri
tonitis, appendicitis, scarlet fever,
typhoid fever, diphtheria, grippe,
cancer and smallpox. What an aw-
full state of affairs, now that we learn
that consumption is in reality the
most durable of all chronic diseases.
After studying the subject for
many years, the scientists announce
that, while tuberculosis is extremely
contagious, it is both preventable
and durable. DIR. Joseph Mcdowell
Matthews, of Louisville, goes even
farther and states:
There are two reasons why peo-
pie die from consumption-ignorance
and laziness."
Bearing all this in mind, America
has begun. one of the greatest wars
that her people will ever know. 1t
is the war between science, hygiene
and common sense on the one side,
and ignorance, indifference and un-
sanitary conditions on the other. 1t
was long believed that consumption
was hereditary and, when q parent
had the disease, the cry went forth
that some or all of the children must
have it. Modern science and research
have proved that this theory is all
fudge. 1t is true that a child may
inherit parents physique to a cer-
tain extent and that it may have less
powers of resistance, but it is GER
tain that the disease cannot be in
herited. When a child follows par
ent to the grave with consumption,
it is only because of carelessness with
the sputum from the diseased lungs
of the older person.
The average consumptive coughs
out millions of bacilli q day and,
while sunshine kills many of these
germs, the careless person may know
that through his own indifference he
is injecting the air about him and
wilfully inoculating thousands Of 9th
ers with the disease that is ravaging
him. These germs, when dry, float
out on the air and infect other per-
sons in various ways. Sometimes
they they go through the skin, pro-
ducing a local disease; again, they
are swallowed with food and produce
an intestinal trouble; and finally
through the air, which, when in
hailed, is likely to produce consump.
ton.
| The people of the poorer classes are
more liable to infection, because they
have less sunshine and fresh air in
their homes, have less nourishing
food and so have less resisting power
when the disease germs come their
way. There are 10, 900 cases among
the poorer classes in New York City
One authority says:
Consumption is more frequent
among the poor, the badly housed
the under-fed, the Incorporate and
individuals debilitated by excesses O,
certain occupations. Without better
housing for the poor, the tuberculo'
sis problem cannot be solved"
| Negroes are more susceptible tC
the ravages of consumption than
white people, the mortality among
them being three times as great,
More married men die of this disease
than those who are single. One Ol
the greatest aids to consumption
nowadays is found in adulterated
foods, which offer bulk and not sub
stance to the consumer.
The one great thing about con
sumption that the world has not YET
realized is that it cannot be cured by
nostrums, by patent medicines, by
quack doctors nor by widely adver
tised remedies with attractive-sound
ing titles. 1t is cured solely and en-
tirely by wise and judicious use O
fresh air, water, sunshine and ar
abundance of wholesome food, al
abetted by determination to rid tht
mind of worry and to get well. Oc
casionally simple medical remedie.
are necessary, when the hygiene. OF
dietic means have not proved suffi
cient to combat the disease; but
those instances where medicine i!
needed are few and should not b.
magnifed. Climate is a great factor
and one should generally be choser