Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1916-06-30
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CRIMPING CATCHING DISEASES.
Students are constantly decreasing
the number of conceptions of posi-
BILE avenues through which contag-
ious diseases may be spread from
one individual to another. This is
most important because if we can
fix responsibility on a small enough
number of avenues we shall be able
to dispose Of our defensive forces
so as to shut off those channels eff
fectively. In the past we've been
buster than a small boy at three
ring and elevated platform circus
trying to watch air, water, toys,
dishes, books and other things which
surround a patient, and keep them
from carrying the contagion to a new
victim.
What concentration might promise
in guarding against disease germ
enemies may be illustrated by our
Mexican episode If our soldiers
knew that Villa had but two or three
avenues of escape open to him, they
would doubtless have him under lock
and key or a tombstone by this
time. His safety and our difficulty
lies in the fact that he could choose
one Of many routes and at best we
could only guess which one, with a
fine chance of guessing wrong
Evidence is accommodating that it
is people, animals, and insects that
must be watched and that for many
diseases, at least, we can ignore the
lifeless objects that sick people
touch or live among Thus, Wege-
ner, after studying several measles
epidemics, was unable to find any
evidence that this disease was car
ried by lifeless objects or by peo-
pie not sick of the disease
The same belief is held concern
ing many other diseases. Chaplin
one of the greatest authorities on
contagious disease, is exceedingly
doubtful if lifeless objects commonly
spread disease. Speaking of money
as a possible disease carrier he
says: There is no good evidence
that money has ever actually been
the means of spreading disease
He has failed to find any more con
tagious disease among bank clerks
street car conductors, or treasury
employees than among other classes
of people.
But disease still spreads.
And children and grown people
about spreading it. There are enough
of them to account for all the con
tagious disease we have. This is
especially true because of another
fact that is becoming we'll fixed in
the minds and writings Of the
authorities, and that is that it is
the early days of measles whoopin2
cough, scarlet fever, ETC., that are
most dangerous. It's the early cough
and sneeze and not the whoop or
the skin scales that spread disease
primarily.
Parents, teachers, children, and
even the health authorities need to
learn more about these new con-
ceptions because it is in these new
conceptions that the hope of our
wiping contagious disease out of
existence lies. Instead of being less
on guard, however, We shall need
to be more so. The difference will
be that We'll concentrate our watch
fulness like the deer hunter who
sits on a trail instead Of tramping
across miles of country in the hope
of seeing or hearing a deer farther
and quicker than the deer sees
him
Catch that cough or sneeza in a
pocket handkerchief.