The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-25
NEW IDEAS ON TUbERCUL L0SIS BY DIR. MAYER
To Save Adults, Keep The Babes From Infection, Is
 His Slogan.

bdDeS EIQ1u lI16Ct1O1, 1S
 His Slogan.
 New ideas on the prevention of the spread of tuberculosis were propound- ed yesterday by pr. Stephen J. Maher of New Haven at the State Charities and Corrections conference in Hart ford. In part he said:
 | +If the rather widely accepted theory that, during childhood, every human being becomes infected with l tuberculosis, is true, Connecticut must have quarter of a 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 better, she will be glad | to hear of it. She realizes that sana- toria, at least sanatoria Of the present 1 type and equipment, are not going to banish tuberculosis from the state l but she knows that her sanatoria. perhaps more by their indirect than Dy tnelr OTeCL 1nuuenCe, nave 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 aanatoria will be of the high est importance for the utilizing and disseminating of this knowledge. 1 Nowadays, a slowly moving but pevasive and highly important change is coming over the medical ! worlds conception of the proper 1 function of that costly and highly l specialized institution, the tubercu1o- sis tanatorium. Let me recount briefly a few of the reasons for this l change:
 q. The teaching of the patho1o- gists that most children. or. as Bat tey Shaw puts it in nls much discuss ed papers in the Lancet of January last, probably all children, living un- der the conditions of civilization, are infected by the bacillus tubercuIo- sis
 3'2. The deduction from this teach , ing that most, if not all, acute tuber- culosis in adults is the result, not of a new infection, but is simply the lighting up of the old infection of ! childhood.
 "3. The realization that no cam paign for the abolishing of human 1 tuberculosis can succeed which has not for it's chief, if not it's only aim, the prevention of the tuberculosis of 1 childhood.
 , "4. The realization that infants born of tuberculosis mothers are usually born free of tuberculosis, and that there is no evidence whatever, clinical or experimental to justify the suspicion that a tuberculous fath- CT can transmit his disease to his offspring.
 |
 ceding concepts of the situation are true. the principal, if not the onc justification for insisting on the segre- gating of adult consumptives would be proof that their remaining in their homes constituted a danger to chil- dren-
 Now comes the question wha
 shall we do to save our children from | the infection of tuberculosis?
 't1. Pasteur's philosophy would
 have replied: Permit only infect
 ed mothers to bear children. Such al
 answer would not be accepted nova 1 days, (a) because of the belief tha
 practically all adults have been in
 fected with tuberculosis; and (b) be
 cause of the every day experiences o
 veterinarians that if the new-borl
 calves of tuberculosis COWS are takel
 from their mothers and raised unde ! proper cOnQlL1OnS or 1eeO1nS an
 cleanliness and air and sunlight the
 grow up untainted with tuberculosis
 and (c) because control of huma
 percentage would be impossible, eve l if desirable.
 tt2. Immediate removal of the new
 born babe from it's infected mother t
 a state-controIled institution, wher
 it could be scientifically reared. Thi
 would not be feasible because, Ga
 all mothers have at some time bee
 infected, and (b) because Institutions
 rearing of infants results in a deat D. rate so much higher than the infar E death rate of even the poorest people H and (c) because the community is S E convinced that an infant needs M m others care, that. save in very fla H grant cases the public would not sane S ton the forceful taking of bab N from it's protecting mother, no matte how fine the preventorium or asJ E lurn to which it was proposed to talk E it.
 m @3. Provide every newborn infar 3 with such home food and with sue S home environment as will preclud E the possibility of the child's infectio E with tuberculosis. If the child & even the actively tuberculosis mothe H is born free of tuberculosis it shoul @ be an easy matter, in the light of a H our new hygienic knowledge to pro A vide it with safe food and sal @ home. Well, perhaps it ought to |
 an easy matter, but it isn't. What conclusions of benefit ma H we derive from so rapid review
 so big a subject?
 Perhaps the following:
 "1 To win the fight against tube
 culosis in Connecticut we must pr Fl vent the infection of Connecticut
 children.
 @ st2 To be able to prevent the il @ lection of Connecticut's children v