Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1907 — THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE. [ARTICLE]

THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE.

Congreai on the Subject to Be Held Next Year in Washlacton. Next year an international congress on tuberculosis is to be held at Washington and the most prominent men in that specialty of the profession of medicine from all over the world will attend. To bring these men to this country and entertain them while here will enquire SIOO,000. $40,000 of which has been subscribed. During the congress the delegates will be .divided into groups and these groups of men will visit every large city in the United States and give popular lectures upon this subject, trying to put before the public the awful ravages of this most atvful disease, teaching them how to so care for their bodies that they may not contract it, or having contracted it, if in its first stage, teach them how to recover from tt: " -iT As a prominent bacteriologist says, “consumption is a disease which the people must cure; doctors alone can’t do it and any attempt to eradicate this disease must be a social as well as a medical movement. Therefore, great good is expected to result from these popular lectures, given by the delegates.” Comiqittees have been appointed in each State in the Union, and Mayors and health officers of every city of any size have been asked to participate in this congress to awaken interest and to diffwee knowledge all over the country regarding the dangers of tuberculosis, its care and the best methods of preventing its spread. The American people some way caa’t be made to realize the Inroads this disease makes yearly. Over 150.000 persons die in this country every year of tuberculosis and over 1,000,000 are affected with it in the United States to-day. Pure, fresh air in our home* every minute of the day and night, perfect cleanliness of our bodies we must have if we would be surely safe. In many States already State hospitals have been built for the care of early cases of tuberculosis among the poor, arid in lowa they have a State lecturer, who goes from city to city, from hamlet to hamlet, delivering lecture* of instruction in this diseas* and its prevention.