CONSUMPTION SCOURGE

Southland Times, Issue 20011, 27 October 1926, Page 11

CONSUMPTION SCOURGE

VIEWS OF A LAYMAN. BLAME LAID ON THE COW. London, October 9. That tuberculosis is due to a lowly form of plant life preying on the lungs and bodies of humanity, claiming 5,000,000 victims a year throughout the world, and costing Britain alone £94,000,000 a year, is a novel statement in a book, “How to Conquer Consumption,” written by a layman, Mr David Masters. , The writer disputes the truth of many current medical ideas. He declares that the main source of human infection is the cow. Tuberculosis, he asserts, is not hereditary, and there is no reason why a child whose parents die of consumption should not live to a ripe old age, whatever doctors may say. ’ Mr Masters declares that carpets, theatres and picture palaces are nests of tubercle bacilli. The sporting craze in Britain and America has ruined home life, but it has definitely improved the health of those countries, whereas records from France, which is less interested in sport, do not show a lessening of tuberculosis. Consumptives, says Mr Masters, should not be allowed to handle foodstuffs, but many milkmen are working to-day because their doctors had ordered them to take up an open-air life. Public spitting should be punished by imprisonment. Tubercular subjects should not be allowed to use telephones, and the entire population should be examined by specialists and compulsor-. ily vaccinated against tuberculosis. Mr Masters says that he regards Professor Spahlinger’s discovery as epoch-mak-ingj and utterly revolutionary, but the rank and file of medical men as yet are unable to grasp its value. Sir Harry Bruce Porter, the prominent physician, contributing an introduction to the book, says: “Professor Spahlinger’s work is the best I have seen.”