A Great Calamity

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 28, 1906

WE are startled by a great calamity that comes suddenly, and are prone to forget that the greatest calamities of all are those which come gradually and quietly, without causing any sudden shock. The army of men which is marching to drunkards’ graves, two hundred thousand each year, does not attract public notice, but the calamity is no less real than it would be if enacted all at once. So with regard to the constant, silent inroads of disease. At a recent medical congress in Washington, a prominent physician said, after having spoken of such sudden disasters as the Chicago fire, the Johnstown flood, and the California earthquake:—

“All of these calamities combined are not so great as is the calamity of tuberculosis to our country every year. The loss of life in a single year by tuberculosis is fifty times greater than it was in all those calamities. The amount of suffering from tuberculosis for a single year is greater than was the total suffering in those calamities. There was not a form of human suffering or misery precipitated by those calamities which is not duplicated many times over every year by tuberculosis.”

This terrible scourge inflicts upon the country, said the same speaker, an annual money loss of fifty million dollars.