Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1878 — Diphtheria and Its Causes. [ARTICLE]

Diphtheria and Its Causes.

How many times my heart has ached to see delicate children with their lower limbs exposed, not only in cool, but in damp, chilly weather; nothing to protect them but thin stockings and thin shoes, suitable only to the very warmest weather. Should we wonder that diphtheria carries off so many children? The wonder to me is that the mortality is not greater. I consider that this unsuitable manner of clothing children is the promoter of more cases of diphtheria than all other causes combined, especially in this variable climate. It appears that parents pay no attention whatever to the changes in the weather from June to November; no matter how chilly or cold the weather may be, the thin stockings and absurdly-short dresses and exposed neck and arms are to be met with upon our streets anywhere. It seems to me that the attention of parents should be called to this great neglect on their part to properly clothe their children according to the state of the weather, no matter what niay be the season of the year. It would appear difficult to overlook this subject of clothing in our search after causes for diphtheria. What physician does not know that the blood recedes from, or shrinks, as it were, from cold localities to seek a more congenial latitude? And where will it go to? Why, it can only find shelter in some of the vital organs, and then what is the result ? Congestion of one or more organs, unless the person happens to be possessed of sufficient vitality to bring about a reaction in the circulation. Some people have this and recover, while, perhaps, in the meantime, many others, less favored, do suffer and die. A congress of grape-growers has been held at Montpelier, France, a section of country that has been completely devastated by the terrible phylloxera. It was demonstrated there that American vines were able to resist the ravages of this plague, and the growers hope, by this means, to restore their former prosperity. /