Tuberculosis by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 5, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 18.

Tuberculosis

By Editor

VERY earnest efforts are being put forth throughout the United States to combat the advances of the great white plague, and to enlist every organization in the country in active work in this line. We have not only the International, but the National Association for the study and prevention of tuberculosis, and such associations as are forming in the states, cities, and counties also.

One of the circulars which we have received states that the Roman Catholic Church is leading in the active cooperation against the great white plague; but we wish to say that the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and the church organization with which it is connected have been putting forth efforts in that direction throughout all the years before even these associations were formed.

Tuberculosis is curable, but it is not curable through some specific, some patent medicine. A dozen different things have been suggested, and science is putting forth every effort in its power to invent or discover some serum or remedy which will materially help in checking it, but the cure of the disease, as we have pointed out many times, must come from nature itself, and the three great contributing factors to that cure are sufficient exercise (perhaps we would better say sufficient rest), abundance of pure air night and day, and a super-abundance of nourishing food. There are no factors which will help as will these. Of course there should be proper regulation of loose, easy, comfortable clothing. The mind should be in that condition where there will be as little worry as possible, but the building up of the system must come from the great factors of pure air and good food; let the patient spend as much of his time in the open air as possible, out in the sunshine.

This paper and its associates have also emphasized the need of cleanliness. One of the potent factors for the spread of the disease is uncleanliness. Those who are under its power of course naturally grow careless; care is not taken of the sputum in which are the disease germs. The sick expectorate upon the floor or in the carpets or in public places. These germs are taken up by the flies, or become dried and pulverized, and are scattered by the winds everywhere, so that the air becomes saturated with them. These are inhaled by persons of weak throats, tender, susceptible lung membranes, and the disease becomes fastened in the system. If every one who has tuberculosis or who thinks there may be a possibility of his having it, would be very careful not to do anything that would spread the disease, it would not be long before a change for the better would be seen.

Afflicted persons ought to feel that there are other lives at stake as well as their own and ought to put forth every effort in their power to keep others from contamination. Friends and nurses ought to deal plainly with those who are thus afflicted.

It may seem hard sometimes to the one who is ill to be asked to do this or that, and yet it would be exceedingly selfish on the part of the afflicted ones to consider only themselves. They ought to be anxious to do nothing that would in any wise bring the same trouble upon their friends or attendants. Let them cooperate with all these who are endeavoring to stamp out the disease. They would find their own health improve as they were mindful of others.

It is an awful thing to think that an average of one in six or seven of all the population are tuberculous. And yet, with simple, common-sense care the most of them may be cured; and others yet free from the disease may be preserved from its ravages. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES, therefore, as it has in the years of the past, heartily welcomes every reasonable movement along this line.

[The executive secretary of the National Tuberculosis Association is Dr. Livingston Farrand, 105 East 22nd St., New York. The secretary is Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, 11 Mount Vernon Place, West Baltimore, Md.

The secretary of the California Association is Dr. Geo. H. Kress, 240 Bradbury Bldg., Los Angeles. Any one interested can obtain from these secretaries information and instruction.]