Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-20

by Dr. Stephen J. Maher of New Ha- ven, chairman of the state tuberculo- sis commission. Dr. Maher makes an argument for the establishment of seawide sanatoria, for the treatment of surgical tuberculosis, which in cludes giandular tuberculosis and bone tuberculosis.
 pr. Maher Says that reports show there are about 2,5o0 cases of glardu- lear tuberculosis and 1000 cases of lar tuberculosis among the school children of the state, and he wants to have public opinion sufficiently educated to have the legislature to grant enough of an appropriation to provide an institution to care for at least 100 of the little sufferers.
 Sites for such sanatoria, some of them along the seashore in this end of the state, have been looked over, tagers has been encountered, when it was proposed to have a sanatorium located anywheres near them.
 Teachers and Tuberculosis. In part pr. Maher's paper was as follows:
 Teachers who remember what the conditions were in Connecticut twen- ty. fifteen, or even ten years ago. will I think, agree with me when I say that during the periods of time men, toned, consumptive children have al- most disappeared from our schools. They hsfe not disappeared from the state. They no longer go to school. Nowadays, perhaps by advice of school doctor or nurse, little John or | Mary is kept home and turned over to | the family physician or the dispen- sary, or the visiting nurses. or the sanatoriuni, and the dreaded cough is no longer heard in the classroom. This result is. of course, due to the campaign against tuberculosis that i has been waged with such energy and with such public and private gener- osfty during recent years. It is a re- suit to remember and to proud of. No | little of the credit for the secsring of this result is due to the tactfuily ex- ereised influence of the school teach CTS of the state. I would like to fo- GUS your attention on another part of I the tuberculosis problem, a part of | the problem that heretofore Connecti- cut has not considered very seriously. would ask the teachers of the state to help us solve. refer, of course, to bone and glanudlar tuberculosis. Imprisoned Germs,
 1t may not be necessary for me to explain that in children practically all chronic swellings or Jumps in the neck or under the arms are caused by a tuberculosis swelling on one or both l sides of the neck, or in the armpits may not appear sick. Nevertheless, 1 his future usefulness, and his life l even, are in greater jeopardy than they would be if he had typhoid or l small pox. The very fact that these glands, swollen with tuberculosis, may be tolerated by the child for months, | and sometimes for years without com plaint, does not mean that they are not doing the child harm. But if as the result of an injury or of an attack of some ordinary sickness of child hood, the little patients power of re- l sistance to the constant efforts of the tubercle bacilli to escape from their prisons is fessened, the child is al- l tenn suddenly assailed by hungry hordes of microscopic enemies, who gradually settle in the coverings of l the brain or in the lungs, and soon add another to the long line of their victories over Nthe human kind:
 That is glandular tuberculosis.
 Bone Destryins Germs.
 1 "But bone tuberculosis" you ex- claim. Surely we don't see any of you seen no hunchback child in school? Have you seen no child with its head twisted permanently to one side? Have you seen no child in school with an innmovable shoulder, 0. elbow joint? Or with swollen and permanently stiff wrist or fingers
 That is bone tuberculosis-bone tu.
 berculosis of the less narrowing types II Raw Milk and Tuberculosis.
 We know, of curse. that glandulal tuberculosis frequently follows mea- sles and scarlet fever and suppurative conditions of the mouth, throat ant
 ears, but we know also that it occurs without any discoverable prefortory
 illness. We know that bone tubercu. | tN1r A-ys
 jury, but we know also that it devel
 ops without history of hurt.
 ] For many years one of the mos eminent European specialists, Dr = Nathan Raw of Liverpool, has beer - trying to persuade the medical pro y tuberculosis in human beings i. | caused by drinking milk from tuber |. culous COWS.
 His argument, drawn from findingl
 in laboratories, hospital wards, surgi
 cal operations, and from the results O
 the municipal substituting of boile,
 milk for raw milk, is very inpres
 slve. I am not yet convinced that h,
 IS rlght, but, in searching for tn,
 cause of given outbreak of glandu
 lar or bone tuberculosis. it is import
 ant to bear his theory in mind.
 How Teachers Can Help to Cure.
 This paper of mine is not designe,
 to be scientific disquisition on tn
 cause of the disease. Its design i
 simply to call your attention to tn 1 disease and to a means of curing ii
 The ordinary treatment is surgical
 that is, the prompt cutting out of tn l affected glands and the affected part 1 or bone. This treatment is not satis l factory because of its failure to pre-
 vent recurrence of the disease an,
 because of the grievous humiliation l that result from it.
 l Another treatment of the disease
 the use of tuberculin, sometimes bril-
 iantly successful, is very uncertain il
 its results, and is not without danger
 Finally comes the treatment whic
 ask you to help us provide for tn
 am1cted children of Connecticut, tn
 seaside treatment. Considering thi - treatment, the last International Tu
 oerculosis Congress passed tke fol lowing resolution:
 "1n view of the need there is c
 treating surgical tuberculosis in spec
 lal sanatoria, and in view of the sue
 cess of the seaside treatment of sur
 s1cal tuberculosis, this Congress sol
 emnly resolves ten1et le voeu) tha
 there should be provided for cases c
 surgical tuberculosis. particularly fo
 surgical tuberculosis in childreI
 special sanatoria on the seacoast; an fr1l1 If f7a