Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1892 — Consumption. [ARTICLE]

Consumption.

Editor Republican; —From time immemorial the medical profession has believed and taught that consumption is hereditary, i. e. transmissable from, parent to child. Prof. Koch, of Berlin, discovered the tubercle bacillus and averred that it was the caui e of tuberculosis or consumption. I am aware that the Medical Directors of Life Insurance Companies have not adopted Prof. Koch’s theory but reject applicants for life insurance whose immediate relations have died of consumption. Many physicians also have not accepted the doctrine. I think at the present time the arguments arc favorable to the theory, that the bacillus*is the cause of the disease and that consumption is an infectious rather than a hereditary disease. I will cite a few of them for the consideration of the readers of The Republican. Dr. Cornet’s views are opposed to those of Dr. Neuhaus. First, That rabbits are not infected by association because they do not expectorate. 2nd, That of 100 nurses, 63 died of consumption. Up to the age of 50 years the proportion of deaths from consumption was 73 per cent. of the nurses. He asks “Is it sensible to believe that all of these cases are an inherited.” He further asks “How is it that if heredit) 7 plays such an important part that orphan asylums perfectly guarded against its spread, show no cases of consumption He.cites the orphan asylum at Nureinburg with 400 inmates which has had but 2 or 3 cases of consumption in eight years. He also asks, “If heredity is the sole cause of consumption why is it that of 398,000 cattle 8000 had it and it was not found in a single calf ?” Dr. Cornet, says the disease is caused in the vast majority by inhaling the dried jnatter spit up from the -lamga-of-. those who have the disease. Those persons who attend to the daily cleansing of bandeVkerchiefs, cloths and other clothing used by the consumptive are the ones who inhale the dried sputum or matter and thus acquire the disease."^ Comsumption may be acquired by using the meat of tuberculous cattle or fowls or drinking the milk of a cow that has lumpy or tuberculous udder or teats. The finely bred cows are more liable to have diseased udders than the common stock. People in poor health should avoid the dust from the floor of the room occupied by a consumptive. The staterooms of the ocean steamers, the palace cars and the hotels frequented by consumptives are dangerous places. It is said there are 250 millions of red blood globules in one drop of healthy blood and yet the length of the tubercle bacillus is one fourth to one half the diameter of a blood globule. In ay next Communication I will tell you a few things people ought to do to avoid consumption.

I. B WASHBURN.