The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-03
Intelligent People Lined
Up With, Instead of
Against, Disease.
HILDREN'S NURSES
CAUSEOF INFECTION
Speaker at tuberculosis Confer.
ence Says People Who Should
Know Better Are Aiding in
Spread of Contagion by Lack
Of Simplest Sanitary
Precautions.

|
| Carlessness and ignorance on the
ter were given the blame for much of
1.-THE difficulty of tile task of those who
lare ignting tuberculosis in the adj
dress of Miss Florence Black, of the
| Nurses Settlement, last night before
! the first Virginia conference on tuber-
culosis. Her paper was easily the fea-
4 ture OF the meeting.
! Mothers who employ cooks and nurse
maids without regard to the physical
conditlon of those employees We're given
! the responsibility OF being stumbling
4 blocks in the fght against preventable
disease. In fact, Miss Black went SO
/ far as to advocate demand from each
applicant for such position for d
! certificate of good health, to be attest
| ed by competent physician. Women
are hired to care for little children,
she said. who have no other recom-
mendation than that they are kind and
amuse children. This puts the little
/ ones often in terrible peril from in
| fection.
Nurses Experience.
/ Miss Blacks topic was THE Con-
cumptive and Visiting Nurses She
talked freely, out of the depths of per-
sonal experience and observation The
members of the conference applauded
| her thoroughly and she caught the
sprit of the meeting beyond question.
People she said, must have no
consumption. All my family inherited
ut except me. have been wheezy Tor
twenty years.
"Heredity plays an important part
| in our experience. Inherited lungs
may be aggravated by long hours and
Iunsanitary conditions in factories. One
i girl was proud of the fact that she
licked 5000 cigar labels daily. Another,
a consumptive, said that she expec-
torated into tobacco stems
Badly cleaned streets, continued
Miss Black 40 their part. The anti
!, splitting law is one in name only. The
! rag dealer spreads tuberculosis infec-
/ ton. Those who sweep the streets ought
to be given some sort of protection. She
spoke of houses where tuberculosis
has lived and fought and conquered.
where the plumbing and sewerage are
4 in such condition as to make the own
er and agent blush to look a Red Cross
stamp in the face. Infected families
move from one house to another, scat
tering germs as they go.
Indicts CITY.
In fact, Miss Blacks address was /.
wholesale Indictment of the Who'll.
community--a community made up
| largely of people who at least have
the opportunity to know better, bul
who disregard the plainest sanitary
4 laws. All these forces, which should
be lined up against tuberculosis, ars
in fact enlisted under. the banner OF
consumption, and the Intelligent meh
4 and women must be fought by the
workers for better health conditions
/ The destruction of yellow fever ana
malaria, she said, point the way to. the
stamping out of tuberculosis. not by
treating individual cases, but by re-
/ moving the sources of infection. The
money wasted by the loss of the labor
and effort of those who are i'll with the
4 disease and those who die from 1t
would pay all the expenses of enforc-
ling hyEienic conditions.
i The first Virginia conference on Tu-
berculosis held its opening session last
| night at the Mechanics Institute. 1t
1 was we'll attended, considering the fact
! that the public dislikes to go to places
where it will hear unpleasant things,
1 Most of those present We're health
neutrality-suspicious., health officers
and nurses. state Health Commissions
I, er Ennion G.. Williams called the meet-
4 ing to order. speaking OF the 10000
cases of tuberculosis and 5000 deaths
a year in Virginia, and emphasizing
i the need of co ordination of effort. He
4 conducted an election for permanent
4 chairman.
Captain Baker Chairman.
4 DR.. ID. S. Freeman nominated Captain
/ w. W. Baker, of Chesterfield saying
Ithat when the history of health work
lin this State is written the name OF
| this veteran legislator will be high
4 among those who are the fathers OF
/ public health work. Captain Baker
4 was unanimously elected. Taking the
chair he referred to his own death
I warrant from consumption during the
1 Civil War, and his present age Of
| sixty-six "in the pure air and water
| OF Chesterield"a DR.. Freeman, who Is
1 executive secretary of the Virginia
\ IAnti-Tuberoulosis Associations was
4 made secretary of the conference.
4 DIR. Frank M Reade briefly well
coined the conference to Richmcnd,
speaking of the unseltish work of the
warriors against consumption,
DR.. Roy x. Flanagan Of Char
llottesville, read the hrst paper On
"Tuberculosis Problems in small
Cities He told of the beginning and
! growth of the orgapized health work
\ of C,harlottes lille. No trouble at all
Twas experienced in tho raising of
\ funds to employ district nurse. Al
lnost the whole city was enrolled, and
| the smallest problem was that OF
money. 1t was, however, lard to tlnd
1.-The cases. One reason Was the failure
of some physicians to report promptly,
and another Is the dislike of physicians
fto make positive diagnosis of con-
sumption. a hobo who WAS treated US
4 an adyancedS and he'd ridden case got
so much better2that he kicked on being
sent to Catawba, and was told to leave
Itown 7T-,r
Indifferent people who spread infec-
tion We're given much of the blame for
1.-The disease,
I.oca! I.eatmcnt.
Coming, to practisal applications DIR.
Flannagan said that home treatment
is a malleshift, and the dispensary is
oatinpea on Third pass9 49,