CONSUMPTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 130, 25 February 1908, Page 7

CONSUMPTION.

FIGHTING FUND. MR. CARNEGIE GIVES ASSISTANCE. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS,ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. , : ; London,- February 23; Mr. Andrew Carnegio lias given half a; million marks to Professor Kooli's tuberculosis fund. ■; THE DEATH LIST. Consumption kills nearly 40,000 ■ persons every yoar in the.United Kingdom alone, the' death-rates per million living'from this cause since 1366 being as follows in quinquennial periods:—

1866-70 244S ISB6-90 1635 ;. 1871-75 22181891-95 1462^; ■ 1876-80' 2040 ' . 18J)'6-1900 :..'1323 " 1881-85 \ 1830 A Royal Commission is at present sitting in England to investigate the >causes of tuberculosis in man and- nnimals.-'vTwo interim reports have already- appeared. Dr. Robert Koch, of the, Institute of Hygiene, Berlin, is 74 years of age. Ho is the famous bacteriologist-, who' discovered the' cholera and phthisis bacilli, and he has perfected means of grappling .with' rinderpest. His dictum that bovine, tuberculosis is not infectious lias aroused'' protracted controversy, and in England has been: refuted-by ' i , , V A CERTAIN TEST. Dr. Ashburton Thompson, tlio authority on bubonic plague, wlio in August last left .Sydney for Europe, chiefly td represent Sew South Wales at the .International Congress • of; Hygiene; recently returned to Sydney, In au interview, ho stated:—"Applications of the,results.of scientific investigations to practical medicine succeed each, other more and more rapidly every day; it-is difficult to keep pace with, them, at. this distance from tho' centres to which' those who have made; them resort. That which in my opinion is absolutely tho most important means of rendering our fight against "tuberculosis more precise,; and by so much tho more oifectivc, was placed in our bands by Dr. Calmettu, of tho Pasteur Institute.at Lille/during tho latter half of last. ycarj"it consists in ail absolutely safe method'of surely ascertaining •whether any person is'.'suffering from that infection by a spccial application of; Hn. This test may all and sundry. Iti- '/ofFect' is'jimited ,to production of a superficial J and - local ; rcaction of a ' trivial arid floetiiig character. ' The bearing of this discovery is as follows:— THE SEVERAL ADVANTAGES. "Those who are at the beginning of illness when curative measures arc most certain- to be offectual, but when ;the disease is : yet not' pronounced enough -l'or. detection with certainty by the ordniary means, can be warned in time; those who have improved: under treatment: can learn- with certainty whether they havo been cured, or. whether-they must still tako care; children : who. aro in the earliest stage can. be detected and appropriately dealt ivith in : separate .wards of institutions where children • aro congregated; and by its application in ways which I cannot here specify, many questions as-to tho reasons, why consumption is sb common, among all''nations,;can be subjected to: preciso examination and definite answer," which at sent aro subject to moro or less doubtful inferences. It- is impossiblo to over-cstimato tho importance, of this; method, and I do not doubt that as .soon as, I get my bearings I shall find it has ;already beguu' to'be tested hero." ;;