The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1909-04-09

lem but this is being adjusted by men
versed in economic and sociologic
lore; wars but the Dove Of Peace"
is already lowering over the Hague.
Our greatest problem, our gravest Of
fender, our most insidious foe, is a
great and hideous monster which we
abhor, but which we tolerate.
He is undermining the bulwark of
health and happiness, and with his
death-dooming teeth, he is gnawing
away at the vitals of our civilization.
Tuberculosis" "The Great White
Plague" Consumption" if you please,
dwells with us as an unwelcome guest.
Not only has he taken his abode with
the human family, but he turks in the
system of the lower animals which we
use for food, and from this unseen
ambuscade he sallies forth with all
the ravages of destruction.
While tuberculosis is a term known
only in the nomenclature of modern
science, it's clinical features were we'll
known and described by physicians of
antiquity. Hypocrates wrote of the
clinical features of Phthisis four hun
| dred years B. C. Three hundred and
fifty years later CELSIUS described three
! forms of this dreadful disease. Fifty
years after Christ, Aretaeus, a physi-
clan of Capidocea, wrote treatise on
the clinical features Of Phthisis that
would reflect credit on modern ply
sician. He was wise enough to pre-
scribe for his patients hygienic treat
ment and dietetic measures, and to re-
commend that they go to the seashore
and subsist upon diet of milk and
/ eggs After the contributions of Are
taeus and Galen, our knowledge of
Phthisis was scarcely improved until
the nineteenth century, when DR..
Robert Koch, of Germany, had the
honor of discovering it's real cause: a
rod-shaped micro-organism which he
termed "The Bacillis tuberculosis"
Through the discovery of the immortal
Koch, the profession became, in pos
session of knowledge which enables
us to fight this deadly disease on a
purely scientific basis
tuberculosis or consumption is
specific and infectious disease, caused
by a specific micro-organism, the Ba-
cillus Tuberculosis, gaining entrance
and multiplying in the system, and
characterizing its work by the fOrma-
tion of tubercles or nodes composed
of epithelioid cells, giant cells and tu-
bercle bacilli The bacilli, in the pro-
cess of multiplication, generate pois-
onOus toXines destructive to the cellu-
lar and inter-cellular elements of the
body, and are disseminated by the
| lymphatics and blood stream through
the system of the infected victim
We know its cause; we are familiar
with its nature; we know it is the
! greatest scourge to which the human
! family is heir, and the fulness of
! time has, indeed, come when we must
unite all of our forces, medical, social,
educational and legislative to slay this
vile monster that is attacking the "cit-
adel' of society and sowing the seed
of degeneracy in generations yet un-
born. Every individual is the off
sDring of two parents from whom he
inherits characteristic tendencies.
That tuberculosis is a disease di-
rectly transmissible from parent to
child has for centuries been firm be-
lief But that children Of tubercular
parentage do inherit tubercular dia-
thesis, a consumption Ga SOLD pro-
ductive to the growth and development
of the germs of consumption, is an
established fact.
How long then shall we remain in.
ert, with our arms stacked and our
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