CONTAGIOUSNESS OF CONSUMPTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4739, 2 September 1893, Page 3

CONTAGIOUSNESS OF CONSUMPTION.

; Dr J: G. Hopkins, of Thomasviile, 6a., read a papar on this subject, which is reported in park in the Medical Record,. The speaker said he had joined the growing army which placed tuberculosis in the category of contagious diseases, and his experience with this disease during nineteen years of investigation in Thomaaville >*i which place is a resort for consumptives . fcfc-bqrahim out in his opinion, and piade '.ilpi a willing Bubjeet of the great aod erlndite'Koch; He doea-not doubt but that -aft' 'men, woman, and children, at. some Sme or times, receive into theic air pass- j ages th&it&bercle bacilli, but fortunately •the great majority possessed the pwer of repellinz them and throwing them off— they did 1 noffind that "soil, so to speak, ■which is -adapted to their growth. Indians in a atate of nativity seemed impervious to the germs of consumption, but £ere now dying- by thousands on the reaerrations. Tne whites and the blacks in prisons all over the world laboured under similar conditions. A report trom the Illinois Stata Prison, at Joliefe, says that there are 1400 convicts within the walls, and fully one- third of them have consumption in a light or bad form. Nearly all deaths of persona in the penitentiary liave been caused by consumption. Dr Hopkins emphasised the danger that lurks ia sleeping oars, in carpets, bedding, clothing, arid in the walls of apartment a occupied by consumptives, which have not h.een properly renovated and rendered harmless "by antiseptic measures. Consumptives should be forced to, provide for the destruction of sputa. Whenever situated so a3 not to expectorate directly into a germicide or the fire, they should use some means of conveying the eputa to tbe germicide or the flames. If handkerchief c or clothes are used, they should not ba sent to, the laundry, as human happiness and life are jeopardised through, the probability of inoculation through abrasions upon the hands. These "bacilli •' should never he allowed to dry up and impregnate the air, bb is now* done through ignorance of possible result* Numerous experiments by leading medical authorities have proved beyond doubt that consumption ib an inoculable disease, and so rapidly is the throng of converts growing that the speaker would not' be surprised if even in his day resorts now soliciting the patronage of the consumptive will b 9 quarantining against him._ _^