The Dickinson press., 1912-11-02

tuberculosis Sunday October 9th.
DR.. V. H. Stickney gave most inter-
estine and instructive address at the
Congregational church at the evening
service. He said in part:
Health is condition that is and
should be the first desire and concern
of every normal individual.
During recent years there has been
great forward movement in all
the civilized nations of the earth. hav-
ing for its object the betterment of the
conditions that influence public health.
The services of some OF the most en-
liehtened men and women of the times
have been enlisted in this work.
Many organizations. both religious
and secular. have been lending willing
hands in helping forward the cause.
The International Congress of Hy-
giene and Demography held IN the city
of Washington last month; The Com
mittee of One Hundred; The American
Medical Association and the National
Association for the Study and Preven-
tion of tuberculosis are organizations
that are bending every effort for the
physical welfare of the American
people.
Three hundred and fifty thousand
Americans die everyyea from degen-
erative diseases. "a large per cent of
one half Of the deaths are due to faulty
living. neglect OF ignorance or bad
habits and a large per cent of the other
half to weakened organs of the body
that have been brought about by dis
eases that were preventable.
lone hundred and fifty thousand per-
sons in the United States die every
year from tuberculosis, an absolutely pre-
ventable disease; one hundred forty
thousand of pneumonia twenty thou
sand from typhoid fever, a filth disease
filth diseases also destroy one-fifth of
the children before they reach the age
of five years.
1T becomes my duty this evening tc
call your attention to such facts as
am able to command concerning the
agencies that influence the health of
the public at large. to call your atten.
tion to some of the things that SO in
timately concern your own health, that
of your families and the neiehborhood
in which you live, to quicken you,
sanitary conscience and make you more
efficient workers in this great field Of
public health advancement.
There are two classes Of diseases.
In the first class are such diseases
as depend for their origin upon
weakened or 'desenerated organs.
such ;as Utilization of the heart harden.
ing of the liver, etc. land in the other class
sach diseases as are caused by external
agencies. germs that ENTER the system
from without and prey upon the tissues
of the body as tuberculosis and typhoid
fever. Every disease is pathological
condition with a broken law of nature
behind it.
Among all diseases tuberculosis
easily heads the list in being at once
the most common, the most communi-
cable. the most preventable and the
aaost fatal of them all. Out of every
1ne hundred who die from all causes in
the United States between the ages of
IS and As, thirty die of tuberculosis.
The death rate frem this disease has
been reduced 4S per cent during the
past thirty years and there still remains
an extensive field for active work along
preventive lines to stamp out cendi-
tion that demands so much of human
sacrifice.
THE disease depends for ..its origin
upon the germ. the bacillus .tuberculo-
sis. discovered by Koch of Berlin in
1882. Every case of tuberculosis that
exists today has been caused by this
germ and at least 95 per cent of the
cases have been brought about by TAX
ing into the system. either through the
food tract or the air tract, some of these
aerms that have been spit out of some-
body's mouth. To instruct the masses in
an understanding Of these things is the
mission of the great public health
movement.
Thirty years ago tuberculosis was
thought to be hereditary. 1t was also
considered incurable and a child born
Of tubercular parents bore curse as
irrevocable as decree of fate. Pa
tients were then shut up away from
drafts and night air and housed togeth-
or with the we'll.
Tuberculosis is transmitted through