Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-02-13


By International Labor News Service
WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb H.
tuberculosis, for generations the
greatest nzan-kfIIer, has been ousted
from It's leadership By heart disease.
tuberculosis Is decreasing under the
onslaughta Of scientific medicine and
q gigantic campaign o. education; but
heart disease IS On the increase and
is already claiming more victims each
year than the great white plague
3 This assertion was made bF DR..
Robert H Halsey, Of New York, in q
paper presented TO the American AS.
ISOLATION for the Advancement Of
Science at It's last annual meeting in
Washington. The assertion is fur
Their substantiated by DR.. Stewart r.
Roberts in q paper recently read to
the Southern Medical Association
meeting in New Orleans, and By fig
ures just given out for the year 1928
by the United States Department of
Commerce. Dr.. Roberts not only
places heart disease as the most dead
~ destroyer Of human life. but he also
points to syphilis as one of the great
est causes Of heart disease. Il VS. :
said at the meeting that syphilis is
responsible for 81 per cent Of all heart
troubles.
According to statistics compiled by
the Department Of Commerce for the
registration area, comprising 87.6
Per cent of the population Of the Unit
ed States, heart diseases claimed i70,-
03S lives in 1928, as compared to 1885,
$50 deaths caused by pneumonia and
9O,732 by tuberculosis. Syphilis is
credited with toll Of 1871 deaths.
If the above figures are correct,
says the Division of Venereal Diseases
of the United States Public Health
Service, syphilis may also be held re-
sponsible for 81 per cent of all deaths
resulting from heart trouble, or 3d.
AIT fatalities. When this sum is adj
ded to the 1881 deaths credited to
syphilis by the census figures, the re-
suit is total Of 1O4, 228 deaths caused
by syphilis directly or indirectly, and
this total is arrived at without taking
into consideration deaths caused by
some other diseases which are in
many cases a result Of a syphilitie in
lection. Experiments recently made
in Paris would seem to indicate that
rs per cent Of syphilitics have heart
trouble. Out Of autopsies on 155
known syphilitics there were 11b
cases in which vascular LESSONS OF the
heart were found.
Heart disease has both economic
and public health aspects" said DR..
HaIsey in his paper. Heart disease
Is associated with lrage economic Ipss-
IS. this aiIment being tie laEsest.
single cat1se of death we know today.
Comparing present and past rates.
there appears to be an increase in the
mortality Of heart disease and me
expectancy has been greatly decreas-
ed aa a result he went on.
DR.. Roberts asserted that there was
no more excuse for having syphilis
than leprosy; and that while a great
portion of all heart diseases come
from syphilis, the other portion comes
from degeneration and Affections Of
the rheumatic group, most Of which,
like syphilis, are entirely preventable.
Syphilis has its most dangerous Ell
fects on the heart between the eyes
Of as and s., although it takes its
toll at nearly ell ages, said DR.. Rob
erts.
Both DR.. Halsey and DR.. Roberts
advocated wider dissemination Of
knowledge to dispel the Ignorance
from which nearly al diseases that