The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-05-26
Must Apply hygieniC
and Sanitary Measures
Continued from page one)

ana OdIlItdIy M6dSuC6S
Continued from page one)
Why not leave questions relating to
agriculture to the farmer? 1t wouldb be
more logical than to leave the physi-
clan of the community unaided to fight
against p~reventable disease
The legislature of the state of Indi-
n appropriates annually $500 0 for
public health work, and there is an
other fund of $50, 600 in the hands of
the governor for use in protecting the
public health under extraordinary n
ditions. Our neigboring state Of Ala
bama appropriates $1,000 per annum
for this purpose, and another adjoining
state, Louisiana, $50, 600 per annum.
That the spread of tuberculosis can
be checked by segregation, was abund-
antly proven in history n hundred
years before the consumption germ
was discovered. l quote from a paper
by DR.. L. F. Flick of Philadelphia, and
published in the New York Medical
Journal:
History shows US the preventive
value of caring for patients in ad-
vanced stages of consumption. In 1882
the kingdom of Naples, then under d.
the direct control of Spain, from which
it absorbed it's idea of the contagious
ness of consumption, enacted severe
laws for the prevention of tuberculosis
by isolation. What we now know as
tuberculosis vas then not recognized,
end only the open stage of the disease,
then and now known as consumption,
was provided for in the law. Every
case of consumption had to be reported
by either the physician or the family,
under penalty of fine, imprisonment, or
service in the galleys, and when re-
ported, isolated. Isolation vas no mere
p%erfunctory matter, either. When
done at home, everything that belonged
to a patient was sealed up by a magis-
trate, and the indi vidual affected was
confined to one room. Many patients
were removed to hospitals. After
death, the premises in which the con-
sumptive had been confined were thor
oughly cleansed, and what could not bt
~cleansed was destroyed by fire. Houses
in which consumptives had been isola
ted had to be renovated, in fact, al
most rebuilt, and the belongings of thu
consumptive had to be disinfected o.
destroyed. When this law was enacted
, tuberculosis was a plague in the king
dom of Naples and assumed most ma
lignant forms. In less than a centur,
{ under the administration of the law
tuberculosis became SO rare that tn
law was repealed and physicians CAV
up the idea of the cOntagiOusness o
: the disease.
: Later, we have an equally striking
demonstration in another way, of tn
value of isolation for prevention. Il
the beginning of the 18th century
{ movement was started in England o
the basis of humanity for hospital treat
ment of consumptives. England di
! not believe in contagion at that time
: and there was no purpose of prevention
S The first hospital was for scrofula, an
n was founded in 1890, but early in tn
-, following century a hospital wal oper
, ed for consumptives. Once started, tn
hospital idea spread rapidly, and on
after another large institution spran
up.
i "As the movement was ~philanthr6
e pic, support for the hospitals wa
i sought from the charitably inclined
: and in order to encourage those, a sys
y TEN of patronage was established, ur
7, der which an individual or a group @
t individuals who gave a certain amour
t of money, had the right to fill bedi
There were always more applicant
than beds, and frequently new patient
wanted to come in before the old one
were ready to go out, so that with tn
- pressure back of the patrons, the oil
IS improved patients were forced out an
~ lIlc pdtiCIto ! AdiiSClOus dCul
is conditions were permitted to come il
!. In this way all the work done by tn
hospitals in England was for the mo!
contagious cases, and Melted the yer
best results for prevention. In lie.
=, than a century the death rate from t,
IS berculosis in England, concomitant
* with isolation of advanced cases in no
Of pitals, has decreased nearly sevent,
# five per cent"
=, 1t is written in history that about IL
close of the eighteenth century t.
families of Spanish nobility had becon
so intensely tuberculosis that they sa
something must be done, or their e.
y t~inction would loon follow. They EN-
,e grated to the western slope of one
, the Central American states, and al
todov a haalthv hardy paopla u,;+ho,