NATIONAL CRUSADE AGAINST CONSUMPTION.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10263, 4 February 1899, Page 6

NATIONAL CRUSADE AGAINST CONSUMPTION.

The movement which has been started [in England with a view of lessening the appalling mortality from consumption is being carried on under very distinguished auspices. Recently a private meeting | was held at Marlborough House, under the presidency of the Prince of Wales, to [ furtjier the objects of the National Association for the Prevention of Consumption. , A resolution approving those, ob- ; , I jects (l was moved by Lord Salisbury, and,/ (J l seconded by Sir Samuel W T ilks, the Presfc,dent of the Royal College of Physicians. . I Among other speakers were Lord Rosebery, Mr Walter Long, M.P., and several leading lights of the medical profession. Sir William Broad bent, the Chairman of . the Association, gave an interesting statement on the work of the Association. He pointed out that nearly 60,000 deaths are every year registered as due to tuber- | culosis in England and Wales alone, and ' to this number may be added a considerable percentage of the deaths set down < . to acute affections of the lungs, in which tubercle has played an unrecognised part. This terrible waste of life is in a large measure preventible. Already by the effects of subsoil by improved hygiene, by the higher general standard of comfort and cleanliness, by greater attention to ventilation, and to the construction of dwellings, the number Of ( deaths from consumption and other forms of tuberculosis have been reduced 50 per cent, in the last fifty years. The single sad exception to this statement, as Sir W T illiam pointed out, is that "tabes mesenterica," the disease of the bowels in children traceable to tubercle conveyed by milk, has ,iflcreased. -', But while so much has been,done by sanitation, science : "• has pointed out the way to still greater victories. Owing .to the discovery that consumption is a contagious disease, spread by the transmission of bacilli from infected to healthy bodies,-it is now known that it is capable of being absolutely prevented. "If," said Sir William ' i Broadbent, " we could ensure the destyru©*- -: | "tion of all the sputa of the sufferers' , "tfrom. phthisis, and secure a supply of ; "milk and meat absolutely free from l - "tubercle bacilli, all the diseases due to 4i tuberculosis, whioh now cause one- " seventh or one-eighth of the total num- " ber of deaths, would cease from the "land." This is the ideal which the | National Association for the Prevention of Consumption has in view, and surely it is an ideal worth striving for.

% As means to this end the Association has set itself (1) to educate the public - as to the means of preventing the spread , of consumption from those already suffering from the disease; (2) to extinguish tuberculosis in cattle; (3) to promote the creation of sanatoria for the open-air treatment of tuberculous disease. One statement made' by Sir William Broad- , bent will tend to reassure consumptive ■' - ,_ patients, and their friends on a matter * regarding which they may naturally b_ }ltc The Association, we leartf, sf,n itfcjesnixot advocate the compulsory notification of consumption, but it will urge upon sanitary authorities the desirable- . ness c_ insisting on the disinfection of ' ' rooms in which consumptive persons have died .when notification of the fact is made through the certificate of death. "Its method," said Sir William, "is instruc"tion and persuasion, not compulsion. "'ln particular it will seek to enlist the " co-operation of the sufferers them- " selves, and when the victim of consump- " tion understands that by observing the " precautions recommended by the Asso- " ciation he or she is protecting family " and friends from the disease, he will be "careful to carry them out." This is very different from the spirit which pervaded the brutal legislation—we can use no other term —introduced by the Seddon . Government with a view of coping with the disease.

Among the precautions recommended by the Association, we observe that it urges the friends and relatives ofsufferers and the public generally to "dis- j " courage and repress the filthy and un-' ~;i " necessary habit of expectoration in j ' J "public vehicles and places of public j "resort," and it suggests that railway . j companies and others should follow the | example set in America of putting up | notices pointing out the danger of -the | practice. In regard to milk and meat, J ■ ;] it urges the testing cf herds by tubercu- , r <j lin and the isolation of animals found to be affected, and the provision of public slaughterhouses with proper inspection. Until tuberculosis has been eradicated from cattle, an indispensable precaution is to boil or sterilise all milk, especially that given to children. This, as Sir ,_ - William points out, can easily be done at home. Finally, Sir William' Broadbent dwelt on the importance of the open- i air treatment of consumption. He pointed ou* that England was far behind other countries, notably America and Germany, in this matter. Formerly it was thought that it was necessary for a V patient to go abroad, but now experience, gained in such diverse parts of the country • I as Edinburgh, Norfolk and Ireland, -/ \* showed that the treatment could -» m carried out with perfect success in th* fJI

British T*les. An open-air sanatorium i s to he started even in London, and v fltty firm, Messrs. \\ ornher and Bert, have generously given £20,000 for its equipment. Everyone must cordially wish the Association every success. We should like to see a brunch established in New Zealand. Tho people certainly want educating on the subject, and there is no country in the world whore the openair sanatoria could be started with a greater prospect of success.