The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-21

crowded together in lily ventilated, lily lighted rooms, the opportunities for infec- tion are greatly increased It has dem
 onstrated that whatever conditions tend to lower the vitality of exposed persons
 increases the danger of infection.
 Hence the men and women who are giving their time and thought to this problem come to recognize that personal liberty of the tubercular subject must be curtailed in so far as he becomes a men, ace to his associates. That he may not be allowed to deposit his germ-laden ex- pectoration where his inclination may dic- tate, without regard to his neighbors' wei
 fare Next, that the liberty of the owner
 of the tenement or lily constructed house must be curtailed and that he must have
 regard for the general public welfare when he comes to build tenements, just
 as much as the individual sufferer who would spread contagion. These men and
 women recognize poverty as a terrible
 barrier in their work. The last great bar
 rier Is lgnorance-gnorance not confined to the poor or uneducated, and hence the
 necessity for general education of the
 public as to this dread disease. So re- cent, comparatively speaking, is the com plete demonstration, so long have the peo- pie of the world been accustomed to ac- cept tuberculosis as the inevitable lot of certain percentage of the population,
 that the campaign of education will have to be maintained for a long time to have
 them realize that this is a preventable
 and eurable disease.
 The overcoming of each of these sever al barriers involves activities in sociology. It involves, too, great broadening of eth ical conceptions.
 Within a few years the discovery has been made that small worm, the hook worm, one-half inch in length, inhabitng the intestines of men and women and children, is the cause of thousands of cases of weakness, delayed growth, in validism, more or less marked seen .n our southern states-the army of dirt eaters, thin-blooded, with capricous dis
 ordered appetites, stunted of growth, lazy, through purely diseased conditions. Fly cry one of these subjects is a menace to his neighbors, unless sanitary conven- fences are at hand, as they infect the soil and from the soil others contract the
 disease These people can be made use
 ful, often ambitious members of society,
 capable of performing a full task, pro-
 vided they are relieved of their parasites.
 The medicine necessary for cure costs about 35 cents. Ignorance is the great barrier here, and education will be needed to make our people realize the vast eco homie import of the disease. leaving to
 one side the humanitarian aspect. The dealing with this great southern problem
 will involve activities in sociology as our
 state governments, from pure commer- cialism, will be forced to take in this question, to pass laws regulating sanitary regulations in country districts, to provide
 for educational measures, to provide for
 free treatment The government of the
 United States found that this same dis
 ease was the cause of vast amount of sickness and of weakness in Poto Rico ana has, for several years, maintained throughout the island commissions whose
 only object is to treat the thousands in
 fected with these hook worms.
 The sale and distribution of milk was once largely private matter, but when public health science gradually demon strated the possibility of conveying va rious diseases through this means, over sight of the public mly supply became an added municipal activity. The producers and distributors of city milk today sub init to restrictions and supervisions such as thep roducers of 30 years ago would
 have resented most bitterly as infringe