Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-01
OF Interest
to Women
BABIES AND
CONSUMPTION
Note d Physician De-
clares That No Adult
Ever Acquires
tuberculosis
BY GARRETT p. sERvIss

In glancing over an article on the
relations of diseases by DR.. Charles L.
Woodruff l hit upon this statement:
There is no incontrovertible evil
dence that any adult ever acquires
tuberculosis"
Then why, l said to myself, are the
doctors continually warning us against
the danger of becoming infected with
the terms of consumption? IL no
adult ever acquires tuberculosis (con-
sumption), then all grown-up people
can snap their fingers at its germs and
defy them.
| did not have to read very far, how
ever, before 1 found the explanation,
and il is q thing of so much interest
to every human being that-assumlng
that DR.. Woodruff is sure of his tacts
Il feel that 1t ought to be brought TO
everybody's attention.
The essence of the explanation is
found in the following sentences:
Babies are born free of tubercu-
losis but begin to acquire 1t as soon
as they can crawl around, pick up the
bacilli with dust and dirt, and imme-
diately convey them to the mouth
after the manner of all babies.
Weakened by Sunlight
These germs are weakened or at
tenuated by sunlight, drying, etc. and
are not able to spread actively, though
they establish themselves. Those
which are taken in by the phagocytes
have the same effect as vaccination
and cause the production of antibodies
which make us all more or less i'm
mune to infection of virulent bacilli.
If u baby is infected by fresh, virulent
bacilli from a nurse before its inn
munity is produced it dies of rapidly
disseminated tuberculosis, but an adult
is not harmed by the virulent bacilli
he takes in."
So. if all this is correct, and l am
not competent to dispute it, consump-
tion always plants it's first seeds in
babies and never in adults, and if the
baby can manage, by early exercise of
The art of crawling, 10 infect itself
with weakened bacilli, and thus be-
come immune. it can defy the later
attacks of virulent consumptive germs
in the same way that its elders do.
Moreover, if it were not for the
baby's habit of crawling and of tasting
everything it picks up, it would not
become immune, and the protective
antibodies" of which DR.. Woodruff
speaks would not get established in our
blood and free us henceforth from the
danger of acquiring tuberculosis.
But now the reader may ask. in his
anybody except a young baby that has
never crawlcd ever dies of consump-
tion?"
The answer is as interesting as any
thing that has preceded and is per-
haps of greater importance:
IF an adult develops active tuber-
culosis it is not n new infection. but an
activation of latent LESSONS that he has
been carrying since childhood.
Resistance Is Destroyed
Something has happened to him
which has caused temporary lessen
ing of his antibodies and allowed the
latent tuberculosis to spread, and
nothing is more potent in doing this
than infections like measles, whooping
cough and typhoid fever. Without
these aCtivating causes man may
lose immunity very slowly by improper
food, mental and physical exhaustion.
living in badly ventilated rooms. lack
of outdoor exercise and a thousand
other ways of lowering general health,
but If one in such o condition does
acquire another infection like pneu-
monia, typhoid fever or influenza, his
chances of becoming actively tuber-
cular later are very large"
And then read this:
PoSt-mortemS of children almost
always reveal tubercle no matter what
the disease was which caused death
Post-mortems of adults always show
healed LESSONS. proving that at some
ance sufficiently to allow the LESSONS
TO become active, though we were
later cured by establishment of
the immunity. One-eighth or one
tenth of us are unable to re-establish
1t and perish from tuberculosis"
Must Purify the Water
Long life, then, to the antibodies
and blessings on the crawling baby
that picks them up and nourishes
them in it's blood until they become
as shield and sword of defense for
adult humanity.
| have no thought of treating this
subject lightly. Ii what DR.. Wood
ruff says is correct, he is undoubtedly
right in declaring that the facts he
sets forth are bound most profoundly
TO modify the anti-tuberculosis cru
sade. one of the new weapons of de-
fense against consumption will be
publication of the water supply, which
strikes at the universal enemy over
the shoulders of its ally, typhoid fever.