Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-25
DR.. LAWRENCE =. FLICK
the White PLAQUE as a Rare Disease

On the White Plague as Rare disease
TUBERCULOSIS, which as late as the
i eighties and nineties was so prevalent
and SO deadly that it acquired the designa7
tion white plague and was at that time
the despair of physicians and the public
alike. will be classed as rare disease within
another generation according - DIR. Law
renee F. Flick, noted authority on that
subject.
"Within the last forty years. said Doctor
Flick. 1.-THE dread disease in it's fatal results
has been reduced so per cent, and 1t Is
being stamped out at an accelerated rate as
time goes on. 1t has now got to the point
where advanced or fatal cases are the only
remaining ones.
Education. the result largely Of a strong
campaign of publicity. and better living CON
ditions have contributed most Of all to this
result.
"As tuberculosis is essentially n house
disease and only spreads from persons in an
advanced stage of the malady. specialists
have been able so to control 1t that 1t Is
rapidly and surely being eliminated.
philadelphia is we'll in the van in this
progress. In fact, things have got to the
point that the physician who wants to make
living had better not, depend on his EFFORTS
as a tuberculosis expert. as he is likely TO
find himself without visible means Of sup
L, III
degree but still decided enough to make itself
effective, is being made all over the country
and the world. A
.It is extremely improbable that this dis
ease. once rated as incurable and beyond the
control of the physician. will ever again be
| n factor in the public health. 1t only existed
| in the first place because people were in such
| depraved condition physically that they
| had not the necessary resistance to hight OF
| its foothold or progress in the human oody'
Nothing less than the almost impossibly
remote chance that we shall again find our
selves in this general condition will ever
again give tuberculosis a chance to lay its
grisly talons on us.
| "The disease when it was a real factor In
| the public health found its victims chiefly
| among those between thirty and forty years
| of age and to lesser extent between the
ages of twenty and thirty. That was be-
| cause at those ages. the brunt OF the battle
for existence was heaviest and the drain on
the system through, worry, undue exertion
and lack of nutrition and proper rest and
recreation was the greatest.
| .Tbe implantations from which the disease
| had it's inception generally found their way
| into the human body In childhood. when one
was most susceptible to them. 1t generally
takes from twenty to thirty years for these
| implantatlonS TO deVelop ,the uisease III u
| viruent form.
"Many people in fact, lived and died from
| some other cause without ever knowing that
| they had tuberculosis, because their resist
| ance was high enough to ward of the prog
ress of the malady.
"Now with education on the subject 80
| widespread and so thorough and living con =
ditons so immeasurably better, with living
easier and less of the grind of daily existence
the order Of the day, there Is very re-
l. stricted field for the malady to work in and
| less and less seed all the time to be sowed
in It,
| Change Is Marvellous
"When one considers that not so long ago
the proposition of eliminating the disease,
even of checkingIit. was regarded as among
| the miracles. and that the public further =
more was convinced that the age of miracles
was past, the present stains of the disease
and the progress which it represents might
fairly be considered little short Of marvellous.
"Not only has 1t actually been reduced ia
| n harmless minimum physically, but the state
of the public mind, the fear which in itself
made the disease so formidable to conquer
has been vastly improved. Where at one
4 time it was deemed not only inadvisable but
was looked upon by many with horror Il
shed full publicity on the subject for fear |,
might frighten the public into Mysteries, Il
has now been demonstrated that publicity
was the prophylactic which has helped re.
duce the disease to its present negligibl,
proportions.
'In fact. the full terror of the disease IL
| the palmy days Is not generally known.
| large percentage Of the actual cases wer,
camouhaged under a more harmless nam,
for fear Of the social or other disadvantage