SCOURGE OF CONSUMPTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8943, 18 December 1907, Page 7

SCOURGE OF CONSUMPTION.

Lecturing in Melbourne before the members of the Australian Health Society, on "The Progress of the Fight Against Consumption, " Dr Allen Robertson said that the advance that was being made in the scientific treatment of consumption pointed to a not distant future when tuberculosis would be very rare in civilised communities. In Victoria, as in other parts of the world, the death-rate in consumptive cases had decreased to a marked extent during the last few years. However, taking the rate of mortality in this State as between 1000 and 2000 annually, it was estimated that 125,000 people vow living in Victoria must die of consumption. This could be almost entirely prevented, as cousumption was one of the most curable of chronic diseases. In English-speaking communities about 1,000,000 people fell victims to the disease every year. An idea of the seriousness of the losses to the State caused by consumption could be seen by the fact that the value of 1200 lives lost through the disease in VieJjpria last year was estimated at ■KOO.OOO. Though the scientific treatJThent of tuberculosis had made great strides in Victoria, the State had still the highest death-rate from this cause in Australia. Dr Robertson emphasised the groat importance of fresh air and proper sanitation in the prevention and cure of the disease. Expectoration in public places should, he said, be made a penal offence. There was great need for the provision of homes for the indigent consumptives in Victoria.—The Argus.