THE Inangahua Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1909. THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE.

Inangahua Times, 12 May 1909, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1909. THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE.

DR MASON, the Chief Health Officer, met the Trustees of the Nelson Hospital Board the other day. and delivered a very interesting arid instructive address on the manner in which the plague of consumption is being encountered in New Zealand and elsewhere. He prefaced his remarks by congratulating the Nelson Board on being the first in the colony to erect a consumptive annexe. He pointed out what consumption was doing. In New Zealand, though the death rate here was almost the lowest in the world, in 1907 there died from tuberculosis, 856 persons. Authorities multiplied this number by 4 in order to ascertain the amount of disease in the colonv, so in this sparsely populated country there were some 3400 persons suffering from the fell complaint. In combating such a disease, prevention is better than cure. Consumption is caused by a small organism—the tubercle bacillus—first discovered by Dr Koch. In order to give an idea of the size of the, bacillus, Dr Mason compared the* "i" as appearing in a dailv paper to a column 4miles high.: And in the expectoration of a| consumptive person there might 1 be thousands of these almost inperceptible germs—each in its own self, capable of setting up the disease in any other person

He, personally, was of the opinion that infection in the case of adult persons, was in the "spit" of an infected person. Whatever doubt existed concerning infection, all were agreed on the absolute destruction of infected expectoration. He strongly advocated the institution of sana- i toria, not as a cure, though the treatment undoubtedly relieved, but as a means of prevention. Had the Nelson Hospital Board I not put up the annexe, they would have had to deal with a wider spread of the disease. The ccst of treatment of any infected person came out of the general funds of the community, and the conditions they had created gave many a chance to recover, who without it,* would have fallen an easy prey. The points he emphasised were that consumption was infectious, that the healthful surroundings, embodied in the open air treatment

we e a great means against infection and a help to a cure, and that the lessons learnt in a sanatorium were invaluable in - combating the evil. The address . was most interesting and, considering the tendency here, in Reelton, to the evil, viewing the state of our streets as seen on any I moonlight night, considering the ravages the disease is making here, may we not ask ourselves, "Is it nit better that we should prevent lather than try to curewhen too late ?" And at any rate, think of starting a consumptive hqme vvl ere the poor victims of the j|" White Pljgve " can obtain a home without feeling they are the means of'spreading Jbfter-, ribte £yiJ' '