Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-26

all kinds of tuberculosis 260 people. If
those deaths all over the State were
confined To this Legislature, it would
wipe out the entire Legislature of
Maine, the Governor and his Council,
and all the heads of departments of this
State. That shows YOU what the deaths
from consumption mean to the State
of Maine.
| Another thing: We are losing by
these statistics from all kinds of tu-
berculosis more than three persons
every day. Since the Legislature add
iourned, last Saturday, until it ad-
Journs. this afternoon, if these cases
had been, instead ct scattered broad
| cast over this State, if they had been
confined to the minority party in this
| Legislature, there would not be Dem
| Hcrat alive. tomorrow morning. If it
had been confined to the majority par
~. by the time ii meets. next Monday.
there would be no one in the party left
| eX"eot the honorable President, VINO
probably would be immune.
| Now. remember. gentlemen, that this
is a preventable disease; it is a con-
tagious disease; il is one that we can
| prevent and largely stamp out. 1t is
| not like many diseases that the state
seems to have no control over. Science
| has demonstrated the fact that tuber-
! culosis is contas ious and is taken from
persons just as measles and scarlet
fever is taken. And part of The effort
is to prevent this disease.
| AS the gentleman has said, there is
nowhere IN the length and the breadth
OF tile state of Maine a place where an
| tlti a l
| his mead: no institution, either public
| or private, where an advanced stage of
| consumption can get in.
! Gentlemen, allow me to tell You that
| is where the danger lies A case of in
| cipicnt tuberculosis. as far as danger
| is concerned to the family of the man
| is very small. while an advanced case
is very dangerous.
| You take an cid lady or an old gen
tlenan with a chronic case Of tuber-
! 2ul1sis, freely expectorating without
| any care. and with no chance to cary
out hygienic conditions and they are
n source of constant danger One such
| case is more dangerous running 1T
| large in the State of Maine than all
| the lnepient eases in the Hebron SAN
| itorlGm There is where the danger
! lies. \ person, today. can take care of
| himself by carrying oft the instruc--
lions of his physician ana become OF
| very little danger to his friends ana
| family. but take a man on the back
| streets. who has no education, dispo-
aition or means to prevent the disease
and freely expectorating, his eXpecto-
| rations dry and the germs float in the
Dir. and he becomes a constant source
| OF danger.
| Let me call your attention for mo-
ment to that germ. You understand to-
day that almost all diseases, especially
CONSUMPTION. are caused by a germ, a
minute organism of vegetable nature.
| 1t is called here the tubercular bacillus
| 1t is very minute, so minute that in Gull
lures and so numerous. that cubic
| centimeter of Is drops cultivated i'm
test tube will contain millions upon mil
| lion of these germs; enough is scattered
right and falling upon soil proper for
them to grow and produce untold num-
| bers OF cases on consumption.
| When the Savior was upon earth you
| remember he illustrated many cases by
parallels, and one of them, 50 striking,
| he gave to his disciples, the parable OF
the sower who went forth to SOW. And
some of the seed fell by the waysde and
was trodden down and the birds took 1t.
And some fell upon stony soil and was
destroyed And some fell upon good
soil That is no more true of the seeds
of earth than it is of the germs of tu-
berculosis, which float invisibly in the
| air from place to place, now and then
reaching a human being whose vitality
| is lowered or whose secretions are an
proper condition and who takes them in
! i'm his breath and they become planted
in his system. and the disease is started
and unless it is some one who overeomes
this disease. his death certificate is sign
ed and sealed.
| Up to this time all efforts that have
been made for the relief and cure of con-
sumption have been in its primary and
early stages | am not critieising in any
way the institutions we have. We are
| giving to the institution at Hebron sl30,-
Geo That does not relieve the state OF
contagion from consumption one particle.
| The State is on the wrong track. This is
! an immense problem that concerns the
| State and we must face this proposition
carefully and strongly. We pick here a
strike at the root of this trouble. 1t is
like a man in thunder shower with an
umbrella over his head. He keeps his
own head dry but the earth is soaked
1t is proper for the State to take incip-
lent cases here and there and send them
to the tubercular sanatorium and cure
them. 1t is commedahle thing but the
man or woman who gave that person
his tuberculosis is at home sowing the
seed broadcast. Until the state handles
this question from the standpoint of the
advanced cases, we never shall solve
this problem. As has been stated by the
senator from Cumberland. this reduction
in the death rate of tuberculosis is APP
parent rather than real
Great advaneements have been made III
diagnosing tuberculosis. A great many
cases are now diagnosed as tuberculosis
that Is years ago were not. refer to
the incipient cases that are diagnosed
and cured. That saves US from many
deaths, whereas we are doing nothing
absolutely to prevent contagion of TINS