The National tribune., 1908-10-08
THE WORLDS
DEADLIEST SCOURGE.
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DEADLlEO1 0IUUNJE
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the land. it would carry home to eacl
person who looks at it an object lessor
that never can be effaced from mem
ory. Il is like the Decalog in the aw.
full brevity of its precepts-
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal.
Yet those who unite tuberculosis
lives both steal and kill the health ano
the happiness of innumerable lives.
Consumption knows neither latitude
nor longitude. Toward the poles, and
in very high attitudes. the death rate
is lower, and that is the best that car
be said cf climatic conditions for the
tuberculosis patient. No race is ex-
empt from it, but negroes and Indians
seem especially susceptible to it.
Now here is a scientifically stated
fact, not mine, but the consensus OF
opinion of the great medical minds OF
the world There has been found nc
proof of paternal transmission of tu-
berculosis in either man or animal!''
And yet the great frequency in young
infants of tuberculosis, whether of the
lungs, meninges. or bones is taken by
many observers to prove that the virus
can be transmitted. 1t is established
that heredity plays a prominent part
and hereditary predispositfon to con-
sumption can be traced back for sew
eral generations.
One of the things for mothers to
know is that pulmonary complications
often follow measles and whooDing
cough by leaving tuberculosis deposits
in the lungs.
Here is another established fact:
''The direct medium of contagion is
the sputum of .he tuberculosis pa
tent" The number of bacilli thrown
off in this manner is enormous. Mutt
all, the great scientist, estimated that
a patient moderately afflicted would
expectorate in "a hours between two
and four billions of tuberculous bacilli.
This sputum dries and becomes a part
of the dust stirred up by the long
tailed dresses of women. by the broom
in the street or the house. by tramping
feet, is breathed in by the human and
fastens itself wherever it lands-and
there you are.
Rules for Consumptiyes.
1t would be impossible to give even
fieeting glimpse of all that went on
in the great International Congress for
the Suppression of Tuberculosis And
let me tell you something-after the
whole thing had been discussed up and
down. around and over again the
same way. it all sifted down to this:
The human family is predisposed to
tuberculosis. The man who has tuber-
culosis is bound to die of it before his
time-tho that seems paradoxical-un-
less he obeys certain strict scientific
rules. He has got to breathe pure air;
he has got to keep himself clean by
bathing; he has got to wear clean
clothes; he has get to Cult drinking.
smoking, and oysr-eating, avoid eX-
citement of every kind, and live a
clean life.
For the consumptive there is mighty
little hone in iHf=ap
drugs the better. and. sometimes, the
knife. Some of the old, simple renle-
dies. such as cod liver oil. mercury.
remedies as old as the disease. are still
the hope of these great scientists.-after
sanitation. Their chiefest cry is ''sani- /
tation, sanitation, and yet sanitation
And. when you come to think of it, |
sanitation" achieved would mighty
near clean the world of disease.
Sanitation she Sore Spot.
And when you begin to talk of sapi-
tation you touch the sore spot OF the |
Congress. About everybody but Prof |
Dr. Robert Koch has come to believe /
that sanitation" as a safeguard means /
closely inspected milk and closer in
spection of the whole bovine family
DIR. Koch says: Bovine and human |
tubercle bacilli are so different that in
fection of humanity by tuberculous
cattle is reduced to a minimum"
And right there DR.. Koch and the
Congress parted company
1t was almost pathetic that this
splendid old deliver into the causes of
disease, and who is the discoverer of 1
the very bug that causes such awful
devastation of human life. should, af-
ter the patient and exhaustive research |
of more than 20 years, be turned down
by lot of youngsters who have risen
on the stepping stones which Dr. Koch |
laid down for them and Wh
sert that they know more than their
master.
Maybe they do and maybe they
don't, and somehow l feel like stand
ing by DIR. Koch. You all can do as
You please.
But-and please note the exception
while DIR. Koch sticks firmly to his
theory of the non-transmissibility of
bovine tuberculosis TO the human. he is
just as insistent that the stamping out
of bovine uberculosis-animal tuber-
culosis of any kinds most necessary
because its prevalence is menace to
our livestock-one of our chief sources
of wealth
DR. Detre, of Hungary, was DR. Koch's
determined opponent in this fight of
the experts. He has invented test
tuberculin treatment, and he tried 1t
on 10 children and on 10 adults in
Washington tuberculosis hospitals. This
show in "a hours after administration
10 patient just what the stage of the
disease was. and the kind of tuberculo-
sis the patient had You know there
are three or four kinds of it Then he
said that this tuberculin treatment
would show whether the disease had
been contracted from cattle. or other
wise. He made good.-at least his ad-
herents say he did. OF the 20 patients
who were watched carefully by many
of the scientists. one only showed that
he had contracted the disease from a
bovine. The test was an interesting
one. and aroused the greatest interest
in the Congress, and at least proved all
that DIR. Detre declared it would.
Resolutions Adopted.
II might be stated that the boiled
down beliefs of the Congress are to be
found in the resolutions which were
adopted. They are as follows:
Resolved. That the attention OF
State and Central Governments be call
ed to the importance of proper laws
for the obligatory notification by mcdi-
cal attendants, 10 the proper health au-
thoriiies. Of all cases of tuberculosis
coming to their notice, and for the reg
istration of such cases in order to en-
able the health authorities to put in
operation adequate necessaries for the
prevention of the disease.
Resolved, That the utmost efforts
should be continued in the struggle
against tuberculosis to prevent the
conveyance from man TO man OF tu-
berculosis infection as the most impor-i
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