News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1911-07-12
The white Peril,
Consumption Must Be Prevented
Rather Than Cured.
STAMP OUT THE INFECTION.
Unless the Germs Of the Disease In tho
Habitation, Whether II Be House or
Tent Are Utterly Destroyed Fresh
Air and "Cures" Avail Little.

There is no cure for tuberculosis,
and probably never will be. accepting
the word cure" in the sense Of some
special medicine. A disease prevented
is better than cured. for no one is so
well off physically or financially after
any illness. and particularly does this
truth apply to tuberculosis. The sue
cessful prevention Of disease does
away with any need for its cure"
This is well exemplitied in the case Of
yellow fever. We have never succeed
ed in finding cure for that former
scourge of the south, but we have
done far better. We have wiped out
the disease bodily. bag and baggage.
by simple preventive methods.
! So writes DR.. r. G. Walsh in the
Technical World Magazine. and he de-
clares that Notwithstanding the 'op-
! timists," the disease is on the increase.
He singles out and lays great stress on
the fact that consumption is conta-
gious disease and on the contention
that it is not contracted to any great
extent through infected milk or even
by the using the drinking cups that
consumptives use or through the 'spit-
ting nuisance" Its spread Is through
the infection of the habitation. Here
is one of his parallels:
Brown had moved in the month of
May into a house in another part Of
the town where he had always lived.
BY fall he had contracted tuberculosis.
1t was discovered later that several
different families who had occupied
this same house in succession had lost
several members from tuberculosis. No
attempt had ever been made to distn-
feet the house. Brown went to far
western state. pitched his tent on a
certain spot, and never made any
change from that one spot until his
death. Note that fact. AS result
the soil over which he slept night
after night became saturated with the
accumulated germs which he expelled
in coughing, so that be was continually
at night rebreathing into his system
the very seeds which cause the dis
ease. He was repoisoning himself
nightly and didn't know it. His sys-
tenn would have been able to throw off
the original germ poison" which it
contracted, but it was not strong
enough to withstand new dose of
the poison every night. Had he chang
ed the location of his tent daily he
could have slept each night in an at
mosphere practically germ free.
Jones is another victim. He goes to
the same state. He has an idea that
he can get along without any tent and
sleeps with only the stars above. rolled
up in his blanket. He naturally moves
from place to place. each day sleeping
on new and different ground each
night He ends by being cured.
Smith has the disease ana goes to
the west. He feels and looks in per-
feet health long before year Is rome.
He returns home. satisfied that he is
cured. In less than four months he is
again in the tenacious clutches Of the /
disease.
There is a lesson in this. The open
air treatment is all right, but it must !
be carried out by right methods. All !
early cases of consumption which |
have failed to recover by outdoor !
treatment must lay the blame TO
faulty treatment Jones. who recover
ed. you will remember. did change his
location every day. having no tent to
bother him. and in doing SO avoided
the fatal mistake Of Brown.
How about Smith? The case Of
Smith is of the greatest Importance.
He had recovered. you will remember.
and returned to his home feeling fine
back to what? To the very same
plague ridden room in which he had
first contracted the disease-a room
reeking with tubercular germ life and
which had been occupied, 1t was
learned later. by FIVE different con-
sumptives at various times The dis
ease got hold on him a second time
FOR the simple reason that he came
back to the original source of his dis
Ease. He should have sought new
quarters. or else the house. and partic-
llarly the room he occupied, should
lave been disinfected before being &C.
'upied by him or any one else. These
hree cases cited are but typical in
stances. There are thousands upon
thousands of Browns. Joneses and ,
smiths living and dying this very day ,
whose story. If told in its true light. :
would match exactly the simple but
athletic history Of these three men.
The thing that the doctor brings out
; that consumption must be prevented
ather than cured; that prevention is
asy and cheap and lies in disinfection :
his. in the case Of the consumptive's
uarters. he insists. should be at least :
nee n week. The formula is simple: =
Fumigate every room I'm the house Z
nth vapor given of by heating :
wash all the floors. =
7indows and woodwork with mild So a
ltions of corrosive sublimate and
Tater" Fresh air. either at home or
lsewhere he establishes. is in itself p