Republican farmer., 1920-05-28
NEW IDEAS ON TUBERCULOSIS
 BY DR. MAYER
To Save Adults, Keep The Babes From Infection, Is
 His Slogan.

ed yesterday by pr. stephen J. MaHer of New Haven at the State Charities and Corrections conference In Hart ford. In part he said:
 of the rather widely accepted theory that, during childhood, every human being becomes infected with is true, Connecticut must have a quarter of million Of actual or potential cases of tuberculosis among her children. And as Con- necticut is caring for less than 200 cases of tuberculosis children in all her sanatoria, it would seem as if she should not boast very loudly just now about her efforts to save her children from her great enemy and theirs.
 Well, Connecticut doesn't boast about her efforts along this line or any other line, but she has been doing the best she knows how, and if any body knows a better, she will be glad to hear of it. She realizes that sana- toria, at least Sanatoria of the present type and equipment, are not going to banish tuberculosis from the state, but she knows that her sanatoria, perhaps more by their indirect than by their direct influence, have done much already to retard the progress of the enemy, and that, as soon as sufficient knowledge of the character and methods of the enemy is obtain ed her sanatoria will be of the high
  disseminating of this knowledge.
 Nowadays, g. slowly moving but pervasive and highly important change is coming over the medical worlds conception of the proper function of that costly and highly specialized institution, the tubercuIo- sis tanatorium. Let me recount briefly a few of the reasons for this change:
 
 gists that most children. or, as Bat tey Shaw puts it in h1s much discuss ed papers in the Lancet of January last, probably all children, living un- der the conditions of civilization, are l infected by the bacillus tuberculo- sis
 "2. The deduction from this teach 1 ing that most, if not all, acute tuber- 1 culosis in adults is the result, not of 1 a new infection, but is simply the l lighting up of the old infection of 1 childhood
 l "3. The realization that no cam paign for the abolishing of human l tuberculosis can succeed which has ! not for it's chief, if not it's only ai1n l the prevention of the tuberculosis of 1 childhood.
 "A. The realization that infants | born of tuberculosis mothers are l uSudIiy Tree or LuDefCut0S1S, and 1 that there is no evidence whatever, l clinical or experfm entaI to justify l the suspicion that tubercu1ous fath- l CT can transmit his disease to his l offspring.
 l "5. The realization that # the pre- ! ceding concepts of the situation are
 true, the principal, if not the only justification for insisting on the segre- l gating of adult consumptives would I,o, hot
 homes constituted danger to chill l dren.
 Now comes the question what
 shall we do to save our children from
 the infection of tuberculosis?
 "1. Pasteurs philosophy would
 have replied: Permit only non- infect ed mothers to bear children. Such an
 answer would not be accepted nova I days, (a) because of the belief that practically all adults have been in
 fected with tuberculosis: and (b} be-
 cause of the every day experiences of 1 veterinarians that if the newborn calves of tuberculosis COWS are taken
 from their mothers and raised under
 proper conditions of feeding and
 cleanliness and air and sunlight, they
 grow up untainted with tuberculosis;
 and Gel because control of human
 percentage would be impossible, even
 if desirable.
 "2. Immediate removal of the new born babe from it's infected mother to :, state-contro1led institution, wh ere
 it could be scientifically reared. This l would not be feasible because (a)
 all mothers have at some time been | infected, and (b) because institutional rearing of infants results in a death
 rate so much higher than the infant death rate of even the poorest people; , l oy,d (oN 1nit jc So
 convinced that an infant needs
 mothers care, that, save in very fla 1 grant cases the public would not sane ton the forceful taking of a babe from it's protecting mother, no matter : how fine the preventoriun or asy lum to which it was proposed to take it.
 i "3. Provide every newborn infant , with such home food and with such
 home environment as will preclude the possibility of the childs infection F with tuberculosis. If the child of even the actively tuberculosis mother is born free of tuberculosis it should ) be an easy matter, in the light of all
 our new hygienic knowledge to pro-
 vide it with safe food and a safe , home. Well, perhaps it ought to be an easy matter, but it isn't. What conclusions of benefit may
 we derive from so rapid a review of
 so big a subject?
 Perhaps the following:
 "1. To win the fight against tuber-
 cu1os1s in Connecticut we must pre-
 vent the infection of Connecticut's ) children.
 ''2. To. be able to prevent the in
 lection of Connecticuts children we must not only use the knnuledge | that we now have. but we must strive l increasingly for new knowledge and
 do all that is in our power to per 8 suade the public that tuberculosis re-
 searchz is the crying need of Our z-S | and generation in Connecticut. as ]. elsewhere"
 GENERAL STRIKE IN MADRID.