The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-04-01
TUBERCULOSIS AND THE SANITARTUM
READ TO MAUI WoMAN'S CLUB
By DIR. w. ID. BALDWIN

fish authorities, speaking from many
years of personal experience as Su-
p~erintendent of the Bromptom Hos
pltai Sanitorium of Frimley, makes
the same assertion. (These men re-
fer, of course, particularly to the
nurses, doctors and non-tuberculous
help in ~sanitoria.) When making the
above astonishing claim, personally l
would exclude infants as they have no
acquired immunity; to be exact, l
would exclude children up to the age
of five. l think that statistics will
bear out this statement. In explain
ing the reason for this strange fact,
one authority would lay particular
stress on the point that in a we'll con
Quoted sanitorium the infective agent
(the tuberculosis bacillus) is destsoy-
ed; that is to say, each patient has a
sputum cup and is allowed to expect
crate only in the cup, and the con
tents is ont allowed to dry and dis
seminate-as is the case usually with
home patients-but is thoroughly dis
infected. Another authority would eX-
plain it principally by the fact that
in such an institution there is plenty
of fresh air, good nourishing food, etc.
in other words the same factors
that obtain for the purpose of curing
he patients also act as representatives.
for those who are not patients. Per
sonally, although | believe that
scrupulous care should be observed in
the disposal of the sputum and in gen
eral cleanliness and that this is very
important, yet l think that the chief
explanation for the the comparative
safety of good sanitoria can be found
in the g%eenral conditions of health
in such institutions-that is, fresh air
god food, a generally health life with
sufficient exercise but without eX-
hausting labor. If we could all have
the living conditions that the attend
ents of w~ell-conducted sanitoria en-
joy the drop in the incidence of tuber.
culosis would be enormous. In this
consideration, climate is not n of
the principle things; in fact, contrary
to popular opinion, it is the least i'm
portant of all. Both in the cure in
sanitoria, and the prevention of the
disease, climate cuts a very small
figure. Here in the Islands, however,
probably a climate, such as that of
Kula, does have considerable influence
both in the cure and the prevention of
the disease. At neal sea-level our
iiu 6 SCILCl any DlOlt vi ICSO
enervating; it is not that it is too hot,
but too even-little different in tenn
perature between summer and winter,
and, much more important, little diff
ference between the day and night
temperature; whereas in Kula and all
our higher attitudes there is a mark
ed difference between the temperature
of day and night. This is stimulating
and hna1thfnl and ic thn in faatrpn
in climate that is recognized as being
beneficial for the tuberculous patient;
certainly those who live at our higher
attitudes are generally roster and
healthier than those who live near sea-
level, which should NEAR that they
are not as prone to succomb to the
disease. AS regards humidity, the
popular belief that a dry climate is
beneficial probably has no foundation
in fact. A patient in a good sanitorium
in dry Colorado has no better chauce
than a patient, in an equally good
sa%nitorium, in moist England.
Types of BaciIi
The causitive agent OF the disease
is, as you all know, the bacillus tuber-
culosis. In human tuberculosis there
are two varieties of this bacillus: the
human type, found in tuberculosis
sputum; and the bovine type, which
commonly affects cattle, and which
is found in milk (and its products,
such as butter and cheese) from
tuberculous COWS. But while this
bovine form plays a minor role as re-
CARDS pulmonary tuberculosis yet
many regard it as the prime factor
in immuniZing the human race against
the more deadly human form of bacil
lus. In other words, during childhood
we drink milk or eat butter that is
infected with this germ; from the
alimentary canal these germs make
their way to the glands of the chest
or elsewhere; they become lodged