The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-26
MEDICAL INSPECTION OF
 SCHOOL CHILDREN AND
 EVILS ATTENDANT THEREON

fearful injustice and wrong can be done to innocent persons.
 No better proof of the falsty of the claim that these germs cause the dis
 ease is to be found than is confined in the sta ternent by Henry F. Loomis,
 M. D., of New York. whose oppor-
 tunities for investigating tuberculosis
 those of any man in America. In The
 Medical Record for July 29, 1905, page 166, he says: "The analyses all showed that three and one-third months were the average time that elapsed from the actual beginning of the disease, as estimated from the history of physical examination, and
 the first time tubercule bacilli were found in the sputum. The presence
 in the sputum of tubercule bacilli is not by any means an early develop ment, in my estima tion."
 Contrast with this the declaration of w. T. Councilman, M D., writer of the article on tuberculosis in the last edition of the Reference Handbook of the Medical Science that tuber- cuioSis is "an infectious disease caus- ed by the bacilli tuberculosis" The statements throughout this article rest upon the unwarranted assump- to the tubercule bacillus, and that, in the absence of this parasite, tuber- culosis cannot occur. These two doc tors disclose a pretty state of affairs, surely; but, if the tuberculosis germ" is@ not present in case of consumption until nearly four months from the be- ginning of the disease how is bacteri- ological examinations going to deter mine the presence of the disease until it is pretty well advanced? And, fur ther, does not this demonstrate that the germs are the result, not the cause of the disease?
 Disease is produced in the first place by improper living, causing a sus- ceptibility in the person which needs only the peculiar atmospheric condi- tion necessary to develop it. That att mospheric conditions develop diseases, in those susceptible, is seen in the different types of diseases prevalent at various times. At one time cholera pervails, at, another smallpox, at an- other scarlet fever, at another measles, at another typhoid fever, and so on.
 We then hear much of the activities of boards of health in stamping out" disease; but they never do, and for the simple reason that they cannot When an epidemic occurs those sus- ceptible to the peculiar atmospheric conditions then prevailing will take had it the epidemic subsidies and pass es away of itself.
 It is nothing more or less than a case of 'sthe survival of the Attest" The weddings, from whatever cause, must succumb, and even the most skilled in the medical art are power less to prevent, or circumvent, this natural law.
 Much can be done, however, to pro- mote health and banish disease, but the means must be entirely different from those employed at present. Let the gospel of health be preached. Let hygiene, the proper way to live, the care of the body, etc, be taught in every grade in all our schools, which can easily be done with text books now obtainable for study of these subjects. Let those who are intrusted with the care of the schools see to it that the buildings are safe, clean, well heated and ventilated and equip ped with proper and modern sanitary accommodations, all essential in pro- noting the health of the children, and at the same time tend to remove the need for medical inspection.
 Surely Waterbury has not suffered in the past from diseases in the and with the constant advance being made in hygiene and sanitary it is reasonable to SUD- pose that conditions will improve as we progress, and preclude the possi- bility of such calamities in the future as the advocates of medical inspection predict and would have us believe is sure to happen, if we do not let them have it all their own way
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