The Great White Plague

Tuberculosis, a disease which causes about one-third of all the deaths which occur between the ages of 18 and 45, and kills each year about 150,000 people in the United States, is caused by a bacterium which may grow in a great many different parts of the body, although it is most likely to be found in the lungs, causing tuberculosis of the lungs, or consumption. The germ does not grow all through the lungs in this disease, but here and there at special points, where there form hard little knots or tubercles, from which the disease is named.

Tuberculosis of the bones is not uncommon among children, and a great many of the lame people we see on the streets are crippled from this cause.

The Germ of Tuberculosis

The primary cause of tuberculosis is a germ discharged in the spray and sputum coughed out by consumptives, and infection comes in most cases from getting these human discharges into the mouth. Sometimes the germ is inhaled in dust, but it is more frequently transferred from one person to another by rather direct contact.

A great many cattle suffer from tuberculosis, and children may become infected by drinking the milk of tuberculous cows.

How to Prevent the Spread of Tuberculosis Infection

To prevent the spread of tuberculosis it is necessary first of all to destroy the germs discharged from the mouths of consumptives; and second, to pasteurize the milk of all cows not certainly known to be free from the disease.

The careless consumptive is a great danger to his family and associates, but one who is always careful to destroy his sputum and to avoid coughing out mouth spray into the air need not be a menace to the health and life of others. The consumptive should always cough into a cloth or handkerchief, or a paper napkin, which can be burned, and all sputum should be received in paper cups and burned at the end of the day. If handkerchiefs are used, they should not be put into a laundry bag or basket with other soiled linen, but should be boiled for twenty minutes in a strong soapsuds solution.

Vital Resistance against Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a disease in which vital resistance plays a specially important part. The germ is unfortunately very common; in fact, almost every individual, sooner or later, is slightly infected with it.

This does not mean that every man has tuberculosis, in the sense of suffering from actual disease. The human body has a wonderful power of defending itself against this invader, and a few germs entering a healthy body are quickly overcome. It is when a great many germs are taken in, and particularly when the strength is reduced by attacks of other diseases, or when resistance is lowered by intemperate habits, by living and working in overheated rooms, by eating insufficient food, or by breathing sharp dust particles, that the invisible enemy overcomes the defenses of the body. France has today some 500,000 cases of tuberculosis to care for because of the deadly effects of the strain of trench life upon soldiers who, in a time of crisis, had to be sent to the front whether they were in full physical health or not.

Dust and Tuberculosis

People who have recovered from tuberculosis, and those in whose family there has been a case, should be specially on guard against allowing their vital resistance to become weakened. Among the most important causes of tuberculosis are the unsanitary conditions of factory life. An overheated, unventilated workshop is certain to lower vital resistance and make the worker an easy prey to the tuberculosis germ, particularly if he is weakened by long hours of labor. An especially dangerous thing about some industries is the fact that the air of the workshops is full of fine particles of mineral or metallic dust. These dust particles are inhaled and injure the delicate tissues of the lung, so that tuberculosis germs find it easy to grow there. The workers in some of these industries—granite workers and grinders, for instance—are two or three times as likely to contract tuberculosis as are people who work at less dangerous trades.

In all such places there should be special pipes with exhaust fans to draw off the dust from the air. Where this cannot be done, the worker should wear a respirator over his mouth, to keep out the dust particles.

The Cure of Tuberculosis

Just as the tuberculosis germ fails to gain a real foothold in the body of a thoroughly healthy person, so by proper hygienic treatment it can be conquered even after it has begun its work.

There are no medicines, in the ordinary sense, that will cure tuberculosis. All so-called "Consumption Cures" are frauds which take the money of their victims and do them immeasurable harm by wasting precious time. The cure for tuberculosis is hygienic living under the advice of a competent physician, properly directed rest and exercise, plenty of fresh air, and a sufficient amount of wholesome food. If such treatment is taken early in the disease, tuberculosis can generally be cured.

Importance of Early Treatment

The main thing is to begin the treatment of tuberculosis as soon as possible. The time to put out a fire, or to control a disease, is before it gets well under way. When tuberculosis has gone far, it cannot usually be checked, but if the disease is attacked at its beginning, there is every reason to be hopeful. Among the common danger signals are loss of weight, loss of appetite, prolonged "cold" with cough and spitting—the expect orations sometimes blood-tinged? frequent hoarseness, afternoon fever, chills, nightsweats, easy tiring, and pains in the chest. One of the earliest symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis is a sense of weakness and loss of energy, both of body and mind, not infrequently out of all proportion to the extent of the disease. If any of these symptoms are present, the patient should go to a physician and have his lungs examined.

Anthony Winslow

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