Evening star., 1928-12-04

| There was a physician in New York
| who made speciality OF tuberculosis
He had been treating such cases for
years. and, being strong man, he was
| unconcerned as to his own health. Then
! he found that he was growing strangely
| fatigued without apparent adequaoe
cause, and when a fellow physician ex-
amined him it was discovered that the
| doctors lungs were badly infected and
| he was far gone in consumption-the
very disease in which he was a COM
| petent specialist, yet which he had not
suspected in himself.
| There is a doctor in Washington
closely connected with public health
work, specializing in tuberculosis. (He
! tells this story on himself) He is the
| proud father of three little children
| and employed a colored girl of 13 years
of age to care for the children, eSpe-
cially the baby. The mother, being
! extra careful, after several weeks Oi
! this contact with the nurse girl, sug-
| gested to the doctor that the nurse ought
| to be tested for tuberculosis. Just g
mothers instinct! 1t was found that
! the colored girl was then in an ad-
| vanced stage of the disease. There
was no cough or other familiar symp-
! toms-yet she was daily endangering
| the doctors children.
There are 100 tuberculous children
barred from the public schools and sent
to special health schools in Wash
ington. There they receive their in
struction in school studies, but do not
receive special therapy for their disease.
They are in the health schools"
hours out of the "a of the day; the
other 19 are spent in their home en-
vironment, which is usually far from
being sanitary and especially suitable
for their cases. There is no provision
in Washington-no hospital for tuber-
culous children; Congress will be asked
this year to provide such.
Where tuberculosis cases are taken in
hand in early stages, more than 80 per
cent recover Even taken in advanced
stages, more than so per cent are cured.
No medicine is required-just rest,
fresh air and abundant nutriment,
without overeating. Rest is the princi-
pal esSential-abSolute rest 10 or 20
hours daily in bed.
In a childrens tuberculosis sani-
tarium the chiId-patients are required
to remain on their cots at least 10
hours out of IA. They are taught
games that they can play in bed. That
would be difficult in most homes; home
is not the place, therefore, to save
financially well supplied. Almost
always the patient, suffering from
tuberculosis in its early stages, denies
that anything at all ails him, hence
rebels against staying in bed. Yet
reSt-reSt-and more RESPONSIBILITIES
the chief medicine" and that is Just
what he fails to accept.
No longer is the tuberculous patient
sent off to distant climates for recu-
Deration. No climate compares with his
own home environment. The experts
declare that he should remain among
family and friends, and recover in that
environment. where he will stay after
recovery. Arizona and Colorado are no
better than the District of Columbia
not so good if his family home is here.
But he needs a sanitarium here for
proper treatment
Rest? Yes, science now has learned
how to rest one lung at time, putting
it quite out of commission while it re-
cuperates and reknitS its diseased parts
This is new-discovered within the last
five years. 1t is as simple as blindfold-
ing one eye and doing all the seeing
with the other.
In normal health, the lungs simply
hang within the pleural cavities, without
contact with the sides Each pleural cav
ity is filled with air. at ordinary atmos-
pheric pressure, which permits the lungs
to expand and contract as one breatheS
Each lung hangs in its own cavity, sep
arated from that of the other lung. So
the surgeon takes a hollow needle and
punctures the cavity of the lung which
is to be laid off," and, through that
hollow needle, air is pumped into that
pleural cavity until there is sufficient
air pressure to hold that lung and
keep it from expanding with the intake
of breath; so it gets a complete rest.
while the other lung takes up all the
work of breathing. and purifying the
blood. While the idle lung rests the
diseased spots heal, though the patient
must not overeXert and put too heavy a
burden on the one active lung. Rest!
Rest Rest OF course, this treatment
is not continued long enough to atrophy
the idle lung.
There are other treatments practiced
very successfully. The disease spots of
the lungs are cut out surgically. and
the patient then RECEIVERS by being ex-
posed to direct sunlight: the sun heals
the wounds made by the knife while
the patient remains quiet. Rest and
sunlight No medicine! Food and rest
and sunshine!
X X X IA
Any one can detect tuberculosis when
the victim has chronic and deeply
drawn cough and SpitS blood But that
is far from being the first sign. The
vendor of patent medicines used to ad-
vertise the inquiry, Have you that
tired feeling?" Now that query is
recognized by scientists as really the
earliest symptoms of tuberculosis.
Extraordinary fatigue without ap-