Chapter XXXI: Consumption, the Great White Plague

Tuberculosis, or consumption, has been known for many centuries. It was known long before Rome was ever heard of. Hippocrates, a Greek physician, studied it, and said that if it were treated in its early stages, it could be cured.

[Sidenote: Why consumption is called the Great White Plague]

Tuberculosis is called the Great White Plague. It is called the Great Plague, because it kills more people than does any other one disease; the White Plague, because people who suffer from it become so pale and white.

[Sidenote: Consumption more destructive than war]

It is estimated that nearly 200,000 people die from tuberculosis every year in the United States. This means that in this country there is one death from consumption every two minutes and thirty-six seconds. Is it not fearful to think of nearly 200,000 people dying every year, in the United States alone, from a disease that we know can be prevented? Do you not think that we ought to do everything we can to prevent this disease from spreading?

During the Civil War 205,070 soldiers were killed in both armies. This war lasted four years. During the same length of time there were 640,000 deaths from tuberculosis in the United States. This means that consumption killed over three times as many people as were killed during the same length of time in the Civil War. In some parts of the country one out of every seven deaths is caused by this disease, but the average throughout the country is one death out of every ten.

[Sidenote: Prevalence of tuberculosis]

There are more than 700,000 people sick from tuberculosis every year in the United States alone. Of this number nearly 200,000 die every year. Tuberculosis is a disease that can be prevented. It may take a long time to get rid of it, but it can be abolished. When you think of all the people that are sick from tuberculosis, and of all those who die from it every year, you will surely want to do all you can to help prevent this suffering and death.

[Sidenote: Tuberculosis a disease of various parts of the body:]

When people speak of consumption they usually mean tuberculosis of the lungs; but tuberculosis is not confined to the lungs. The germs that cause tuberculosis may attack any part of the body, and from one part may go to other parts, setting up a growth wherever they go.

[Sidenote: (_1_) Of the throat]

Tuberculosis of the throat is a common form of the disease. When the germs of tuberculosis settle in the throat, they destroy the tissues very rapidly and, as a rule, kill the patient much more quickly than they do when they start in the lungs.

[Sidenote: (_2_) Of the joints]

Another frequent form of tuberculosis in occurs in the knee; this is popularly called "white swelling." It quickly destroys the knee joint and results in a stiff leg. The growth may stop there, but more often it extends from the knee to other parts of the body.

Often we see a little boy or girl wearing one shoe with a sole much thicker than the other. This is because one leg is shorter than the other, and we notice that the shortened leg is deformed as well. This condition sometimes results from an injury, but it is far more likely to be caused by tuberculosis of the hip joint.

[Sidenote: (_3_) Of the spine]

Again we see boys and girls with diseases of the spine, so that they have "hunch backs" or are twisted to one side. These conditions result from tuberculosis of the bones of the spine.

[Sidenote: (_4_) Of the glands]

Sometimes we see children and grown people with swellings on their necks. These swellings may look smooth, but they feel as if they were made up of little bunches of grapes or plums under the skin. They are almost always due to the growth of the germs that cause tuberculosis of the little glands of the neck.

[Sidenote: (_5_) Of the stomach]

Any one of the other glands of the body is just as liable to become affected by tuberculosis as are the glands of the neck. Tuberculosis of the stomach or bowels is not at all uncommon.

The germs of tuberculosis are likely to attack any of the tissues of the body, especially if the cells composing these tissues are for any reason weakened so that they cannot do the work required of them. When the tuberculosis germs grow in tissues, the tissues finally break down and an abscess forms. A tubercular abscess is sometimes called a "cold abscess."

All such abscesses finally break and an open sore results. The matter that comes from the open sore and from the abscess when it is first opened is full of the germs that cause tuberculosis. If this matter is allowed to become dry, the germs are blown about in the dust. Then other people may inhale them or take them into their bodies through the mouth or skin and thus contract consumption.

[Sidenote: The old belief that consumption is inherited]

Until a few years ago it was generally believed that consumption was inherited. That is, it was thought that children whose father or mother had consumption were born with the disease. Even to-day many people hold to this idea, because they have not studied or learned of the discoveries made in recent years. These people still believe that if a child's father or mother dies of tuberculosis, the child will die of tuberculosis, too, no matter how careful he may be or how much of a fight he may make against it.

It is true that many people whose parents have died of consumption also die from this disease; but this does not prove that they were born with consumption. It merely shows that they had a good chance to catch the disease by being continually with some one who had it. It is also true that a great many people die from consumption whose parents did not have it. If consumption is an inherited disease, where did these people get it?

[Sidenote: How the germ of tuberculosis was discovered]

About thirty years ago, Dr. Robert Koch discovered that all consumptives have in their sputum a long, slender germ which he called the tubercle bacillus. Some of these germs he injected into guinea pigs, and he found that they caused the pigs to have consumption. Then he made many other experiments, and proved beyond question that it is this very germ that causes tuberculosis, and that no one has consumption unless he has this germ in his body.

[Sidenote: Evidence that consumption is not inherited]

Then the question arose, "Is the baby whose parents have consumption born with this germ in its body?" This question could not at first be answered; but tests were made by taking the children of consumptive parents away from their parents, and keeping them in homes where there were no consumptives. It was found that these babies did not develop the disease. From these and many other tests, it has been proved that consumption is not inherited, and that the reason the child of the consumptive so often has consumption is because he lives with people having the disease.

[Sidenote: Evidence that consumption is a house disease]

Consumption seems to be confined to certain families, and this has led many people to think that the disease is inherited, regardless of the proof that it is not. When we carefully study the facts in various cases, we find that the disease is not confined to a certain family, so much as it is to the _house_ in which the family lives.

The record of a single house will illustrate how tuberculosis sticks to the house rather than to the family. From 1880 to 1901, a particular house was occupied by a father, mother, and six children, of whom four died of consumption. From 1902 to 1903 the house was occupied by another father and mother with eight children. They moved away because of the great amount of sickness in the family. At present this father and one of his children have tuberculosis. In 1904 the house was occupied by still another family, consisting likewise of a father, mother, and eight children. Now it is known that four of the children have tuberculosis, and it is feared that three others have also contracted the disease. In 1905 a son of the first occupant, with his wife and two children, returned to live in the house. The father of this family died of tuberculosis. Up to 1906 the total results from this house, scattered through four families, were as follows: five deaths, six cases in people still living, and three suspected cases.

[Sidenote: Why consumption is a house disease]

When the consumptive coughs, he sends fine droplets of moisture into the air. These droplets contain the germs that cause tuberculosis. The moisture evaporates and the germs are left sticking to the floors, the walls, the curtains, and the furniture of the room. When the room is swept or dusted, the germs are stirred up with the dust and people inhale them. The germ that causes consumption will live for a long time in a house; you cannot see it, but it is there. Wherever a consumptive has lived, he has left the germs of this disease behind him.

[Sidenote: How to disinfect houses]

If a house in which a consumptive has lived is thoroughly disinfected, all the germs he left there will be killed. Scattering disinfectants about a room does no good. The only proper way to disinfect is to close the house, for if the disinfectant is strong enough to kill the disease germs, no human being can stay in the house while it is being used. Disinfecting should be done by the health officer, because he knows how much disinfectant is needed to kill every germ in the house and how it should be used.

[Sidenote: Fraudulent disinfectants]

Sometimes you will see an advertisement saying that certain disinfectants will kill the germs of disease but will not affect the people. Always remember that any disinfectant that is strong enough to kill the disease germs will also kill human beings, and do not be fooled by such advertisements.

_Never move into a house that has been previously occupied, until the house has been disinfected._ Do not take it for granted that the people who lived there before had no communicable disease. Do not take the word of the agent or of any one else that there has never been sickness in the house. People sometimes have tuberculosis without knowing it; people sometimes have tuberculosis or other communicable diseases without telling of it.

It does not cost much to disinfect a house, and if the disinfection is properly done the disease germs will be killed. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Try to convince your father that by having the new home disinfected he may save not only doctor's fees, but perhaps the lives of himself and his family.

There are a great many things that boys and girls can do to help fight this disease. This "scourge" can be wiped out; but if the boys and girls do not help in this great work, it will never be done.

=Questions.= 1. Why do people call consumption the Great White
Plague? 2. What is the annual death rate from consumption in the
United States? 3. Compare the fatality from consumption with the
number of soldiers killed during the Civil War. 4. What amount of
illness in the United States is due to consumption? 5. Describe
at least four forms of tuberculosis. 6. What determines the part
of the body in which the germ of tuberculosis grows?

=Remember.= 1. Tuberculosis and consumption are the same disease.
2. This disease kills more people than war, although it might be
prevented. 3. Tuberculosis is not confined to the lungs but may
attack the tissues of any part of the body. 4. Consumption is not
inherited; it is a house disease rather than a family disease. 5.
A house should be disinfected by the health officer before it is
occupied by a new tenant.