CONSUMPTION.

White Ribbon, Volume 17, Issue 203, 18 May 1912, Page 4

CONSUMPTION.

The Open Window. The fresh air treatment of consumption is by no means a recent idea. In IH.V> Or Henrv MacCormac, of Belfast, published a hook on “ Tuberculosis of the Lungs,” in which he taught that fresh air was both the best preventive measure as well as the cure of consumption. Or MacCormac called attention to the great danger of living and sleeping in overcrowded rooms.

Danger of the Indoor Air. The following paragraph from Or MacCormac’s book, which puts the <|iiestion in a nutshell, is quoted from a recent number of the Hritish Medical Journal :— ” It is the state of the indoor air, and “ very particularly the bedroom air, and ” not the condition of the outdoor “atmosphere at all, that is t«> account ” for the production of the malady. A ” sufficiently renewed indoor atmosphere, “and particularly a sufficiently renewed “bedroom atmosphere, together with “active outdoor habits, will render life “ wholesomer in general and freer from “consumption, even in towns, than it “ will prove in the most admirably cir- “ cumstanced residence w ith ill-aired “rooms and passive, inactive habits. “ For action, coupled with a pure at- “ mosphere, tends to life and health, “ whereas inaction and unrenewed “ rebreathed atmosphere but ensure “ irreversible decay and death.’’

Consumption Impossible in Fresh Air. Again we quote: —“ I assert and de- “ clare with all the emphasis in my “ power that in the immense majority of “ instances of tubercular deposits tin “ sleep my chamber windows have been “ habitually closed.' I shall not say that “consumption concurrently witli perfect “ bedroom ventilation is quite impossible, “for the day supplies of air may be so “ very bad as perhaps to entail tuber* “ culosis unavoidably. Vet, if not “ impossible, it is next to impossible. “ In the immense majority of instances, “then, the morbific diseasej factor is “the again respired sleeping-room air. “ Tubercle , indeed , is limply impossible in “ the case of persons who respire habitually “ air not pre-respired , and who keep in an “ atmosphere incessantly renewed." (Italics ours. Foul Air and Disease.

It seems exceedingly difficult to bring home to the average layman the truth of such teaching. In spite of the fresh air

campaign which has been carried on more or less vigorously throughout this kingdom for several years now, we still tind that the majority of people have a superstitious dread of the night air, and scarcely ever fail to keep their windows closed. Foul air is not only one of the essential predisposing causes of consumption, which assists very materially in lowering the vitality of the body, diminishing its resistive forces, and thus opening the door to consumption, but also of other diseases, and especially those concerned with the respiratory organs. The common cold, catarrh of the nose and throat, aryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and similar disorders are frequently due to a sedentary life and the persistent respiration of stuffy, foul air which, in every crowded room, is breathed over and over again.

Change of Medical Opinion. When I >r MacCormac placed his view s before the medical profession in 1 Hf>2, he had anything but a Mattering reception. According to the Hritish Medical Journal a learned physician considered the time spent in listening to him wasted, and his teaching was received by the doctors with “ undisgu sed contempt.” Now, the members of the medical profession generally recognise the truth of this teaching and are doing all they can to educate the public accordingly.

Consumption and Infection. At the present time consumption is so common amongst us that we are strongh inclined to regard it very much the same as the natives of India regard small-pox, that is, little attention is paid to the infection. It is simply a case of familiarity breeding contempt. There is not the slightest doubt but that tuberculosis is distinctly and emphatically an infectious disease. This is well illustrated by an experience which I)r Add son related some mouths ago in the House of Commons. He told the story of a Hat w here someone fell ill with consumption and died. No attention was paid to disinfection, and when the second family entered the same tlat, no less than four out of tive members developed consumption. A third, and then a fourth family were infected with the terrible scourge in this same tlat. Tins is only a fair sample of the way in which the infection of tuberculosis spreads. To emphasize the point it is only necessary to add that the rest of the Mats in the same building into which the contagion of tuberculosis had not entered wore ordinarily healthy. Milk and Tuberculosis.

Another important factor in the spread of tuberculosis is our milk supply. When

it comes to milk from tuberculous cattle little children «ro known to be most susceptible, miml there is small reason to doubt but tlmt a large number of the victims of the “ white scourge ” get their infection through milk. The Royal Commission.

In their final report the ltoval Commission on Tuberculosis stati d unequivocally that the disease is not only practically identical in man and cattle, but that it is also transferable from animals to man, as well as from man to animals. These conclusions, which are generally accepted by all the leading scientists, are of the most vital importance. They make it very clear that the use of milk from tuberculous animals is dangerous, and very likely, especially in the case of infants, to bring about mii attack of the disease.

Sterilize the Milk. While in the large cities it is at the present time impossible to ensure anything like a pure milk supply, we can at least sterilize the milk. Pei haps the best way is to heat the milk in a double boiler to a temperature of about 1(>0 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, and then keep it carefully protected from further contamination until it is used. Wo strongly believe that it should be laid down as a rule that all lift/ „n Ik s/ll,nil/ i„ sterilizfl. Good Ifni/th.