Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-07-10
CONSUMPTION AND SOCIOLOGY

CONSUMPTION AND SOCIOLOGY
God lent his creatures light and air
And waters open to the skies;
Man locks him In q sitting lair
And wonders why his brother dies
II often think of those lines of Oil
yer Wendell Holmes when men who
should be in the prime of life come
to me broken in health and spirits,
their vitality at low ebb, almost hope
less, the cold hand of death apparently
clutching at them because they have
been told they are doomed to die of
tuberculosis owing to the surroundings
in their places of abode-they can
scarcely be called homes-and in the
factory or mill or shop where they
work." said Charles f. Aycock, the
discoverer of tuberclecide, the new con-
sumption remedy which is working
such wonders in California and many
eastern states.
1--WE have records of cures in many
of these instances but the poverty of
many persons make their struggle dou-
bly, hard. A goodly percentage of our
former cures came from this class.
That was, of course, because we were
forced to take the clinic cases at the
start. Now we have the satisfaction
of treating the we'll fed, the well
housed, the well instructed and the
good results show in a corresponding
ratio.
1.-THE sociological features constantly
crop out in our work and it is impos-
sible not to think of what the future
must do for the submerged million be-
fore the disease can be stamped from
the face of the earth. We must first
abolish the slums. What chances have
we against the enemy which thrives
and can only. live in places that are
dank, dark and filthy? Society owes
it to itself, its protection must come
through a reform in the lives of all
the people.
What are the condition of workers
in various industries? know of some
men working in places that are well
lighted and could be well ventilated
but are not; printers working at ma
chimes where there are no Ventilatory
pipes to carry off the fumes, where
the gas under the metal pots are ra-
venously devouring all the oxygen in
the over-crowded composing room. Is
it a wonder that this occupation holds
a high position on the table of dan
gerous diseases? Is it surprising that
compositors, printers and pressmen are
third from the top of the black record?
Marble and stone-cutters are first.
then come cigar makers, then plasterers
and whitewashers, then those whose
working hours are spent in the COM
POSING stereotype anu press rOOiHS
"Cornet observed that in Berlin the
mortality from consumption among en-
gravers was 40 per cent; among wait
ers, 45 per cent; Painters, AZ per cent;
polishers, 81 per cent; Bookbinders, 63
per cent; upholsters, 81 per cent. In
America the rate is fully as large.
Among the victims of tuberculosis
whom we have successfully treated
have been men and women from those
occupations. They have told grew
some stories of shops and factories,
where careless and uncleanly consump-
tive workers spit on the floor so that
when the sputum is swept up in the
dust the chances of infection are great
Much of this could be and must be
improved.
Men working long hours at heavy
and difficult tasks eventually are weak
ened down and become more suscept-
BILE to infection. Workers in dust, and
especially in metal dust, are constant
ly endangered. Workers in wood and