The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-04
WIDE DISCUSSION
OF TUBERCULOSIS
Causes and Prevention Are
Taken Up BY Physicians
VIEWS OF DR.. w. H. PARK
Eminent Specialist Says That a Very
Small Per Cent OF Consumption
Comes From Infected Milk,
Butter and Ment.
VIEWS OF DR.. w. H. PARK

| Washington, May 3.-Is tuberculosis
caused by milk, by meat, or from bovine
sources? What is the best employment
for tuberculosis patients?
These were the chief subjects discussed
today at the session of the National AS
ISOLATION for the Study and Prevention
of tuberculosis, now holding its sixth an
nual convention In this city. DR.. W. II.
Park of New York held that pulmonary
tuberculosis amcng adults is not the re-
suit of impure milk or foods.
DR.. Adolphus Pnopf of New York at
tackled the Nebraska law, which requires
consumptives to submit to the serum
| treatment, and also the action of the
| Oklahoma state hoard of medical exam
liners, which forpids any physician to
| practice in the state If he is suffering
or has suffered In the past from tuber-
| culosis.
| DIR. L. F. Baker of Johns Hopkins uni
versty at Baltimore presided as chairman
OF the clinical section and DR.. Tlieobald
Smith of Boston presided at the PATHOLOGY
cal section.
| Only 21a per cent of all tuberculosis in
New York city comes from infected milk,
butter or meat from bovine sources, ac-
cording to the statement made by DR..
William H. Park of that city today be-
fore the association. Moreover, said DR..
Park, this small percentage is found
mainly in children In other words pull
monary tuberculosis among adults is con-
tracted solely from human beings, and
is not the result of impure milk or foods.
DIR. Park supported throughout his
paper the contention advanced by DR..
Robert Koch of Berlin, the discoverer of
the tuberculosis germ, when he stood
practically alone in declaring that cattle
did not transmit pulmonary tuberculosis
| to human beings.
| The significance of these conclusions, it
was pointed out, will be = direct all the
energy of the campaign against tuber-
culosis to combating the spread of this
disease among human beings, by prevent
| ing splitting, bad housing, overwork and
other conditions bad for the health.
DR.. S. Adolphus Knopf of New York
| does not believe in the exhibition of too
much paternalism on the part of the state
| to the INDECENT consumptive, particularly
| If that paternalism be manifest In the
| form of treatment which has not yet
received from the medical profession uni
versal recognition as to its efficacy
Neither does he believe in shutting the
| door in the face OF. physician because
| he has consumption himself or has been
| closely associated with consumptives. He
| believes in justice to all consumptives
| and presented his views in most emphatic
| language before the clinical section of
| the association.
Incidentally the legislature of Nebraska
and the state board of medical examiners
of Oklahoma were severely censured for
their attitude toward tuberculosis.
DR.. Knopf told how the Legislature Of
Nebraska had passed a law at its last
session which requires that INDECENT con-
sunptives treated at the expense of the
several counties in hospitals selected by
the state board of health must receive
treatment by Communication or vaccine
therapy In addition to open air and other
sanitary methods"
Dr. Knopf condemned a regulation
adopted about year ago by the state
board of medical examiners of Oklahoma,
forbidding any physician from securing
license to practice in that state who was
Sunefl0R IrOH COHsuiHpliOi VI wiz iidbu
been in close touch with a case of con-
sumption for three years previous to his
application. This he characterizes as
state phthisophobia ian exaggerated fear
of the consumptive) in contradstinction
to state phthisiophilia ian excessive over
care for the tuberculosis patien), as evil
denced in Nebraska.
DR.. Knopf offered two resolutions to be
presented before the association. deplor-
ing the action of the Oklahoma state
board of medical examiners and also OF
the Nebraska legislature, the latter "as
premature, unwise and tending to do in
Justice to the consumptive poor"
A wide discussion of the plan of placing
the responsibility for relapse of a patient
supposedly cured from tuberculosis fol-
lowed paper by Dr. w. L. Dunn OF
Asheville, n. c., on that section In which
an opinion was delivered.
At meeting of the directors today ths
following officials of the National Asso.
citation for the Study and Prevention of
Tuberculosis were elected:
President-Dr. Williams WEIGH, Balti-
| more, Nd.
| First Vice President-Dr. Victor G..
Vaughn, Ann Arbor Mich.
| Second Vice President-Dr. George Dock,
New Orleans.
Secretary-Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs
/ Do