The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-07
POVERTY AND CON SUMPTION

Editor of The Farmer. S1r:-
 As there is at present a determined effort being made to stamp out "The Great White Plague I think the fol- lowing items from Robert Hunters $ Poverty" will be of interest to great many people:
 There was once Great Black Plague 1t was the consternation of the people of the time when it grew and dourished. Those who were able to do so fled from the cities which it ravaged. It lived year and caused the death of two or three million peo- ples It was probably the result of filthy, undrained streets and vile tene- Inents. The Great White Plague has lived for centuries and centuries; it was known before the time of Christ. It has caused the death of millions and millions of people: it will this year cause the death of over one million more. One hundred and fifty thousand people in the United States alone will this year die of the disease.
 "A person having consumption can, 1t Is said. expectorate in a day seven billions of germs or baccilli. These germs or bacillf are the only cause of the disease. The sputa or expectora- tions from the diseased lungs dry and afterward become pulverz,ed dust which is blown about through tene- nents. theatres. street cars, railway trains. offices, and factories. In fact. the infection is disseminated wherever tuberculous sputum becomes dry and pulverized. The germ is killed by sun- light and lives but @ short time in the open air, but it will live for months in darkness or in places art ficially light ed Every consumptive. therefore. who is careless about his sputa-and most consumptives are careless who have not been trained to discretion by hav- ing. lived for some time in sani- tarium-becomes. in consequence, a centre of infection. Those about him are veIy likely to contract the disea se; those living in the same rooms or work ing in the same factory or office, are the ones most liable to the infection, especially when they are delicate, over worked, and underfed. or underclad.
 "Dr. Hermann Biggs. the General Medical Officer of the Board of Health, persons in New York city suffering from tuberculosis. These are therefore about thirty thousand centres in the city disseminating the infection. Where conditions are favorable, as, for in- stance. in certain offices, factories, sweatshops, and tenements, the disease is constantly spreading. As a result, there are Lung Blocks and doubtless, If it were known flung factories and lung sweatshops' also. This dry, pull yerzied dust is the most important of the means of spreading tuberculosis throughout all parts of the city, so that, I do not doubt, a consumptive of the sweatshop,, spraying the garments he sews by sneezing or coughing, may convey to some delicate lad or girl in a far-distant part of the country or in a wealthy part which the sweatshop has given him. Professor Koch said:
 .sIn all other infectious diseases we attack infection at it's source; cases of smallpox. of 1eprosy, of diphtheria, of plague, are isolated, but eases of tub erculosis in their last stages, the most deadly stage of the most deadly dis ease of all, are still allowed through out Europe to spread further infection broadcast in the midst spf their already destitute families. This fact does not yet seem to be learned. When it is, and when we have these homes for the hopeless cases adjoining every city, then tuberculosis will pass irony the midst of us.''
 We learn from the above that dust is source of danger-that sunlight and fresh air are necessary-that the people need to be we1l-fed, well-cloth- ed and well-housed.
 pORTER