—Every year tuberculosis causes the death of about 150,000 people in the United States. It is caused by the bacillus tuberculosis, a germ which may attack any tissue of the body, although it most frequently affects the lungs of grown people, and the bones and glands of children. The disease is not inherited, but susceptibility to it appears to be; it is readily communicated from person to person. The germ of tuberculosis is so widely distributed that probably few persons over 30 years of age have not been infected with it at some time, although the infection may have been too slight to be noticed. Indeed, most people have probably been infected many times, though without serious results.
Tuberculosis is spread chiefly in two ways: (1) through any bodily discharges from infected persons, especially through the nose and mouth discharges; (2) through milk from infected cows. The ways by which the disease is spread indicate methods of prevention. Milk, especially for children, should either be pasteurized or
should come from cows that have been tested and proved to be free from the disease. Other methods of prevention include avoiding any and all bodily discharges of infected persons, and increasing bodily resistance as far as possible. Good food, sufficient rest and fresh air are not only important preventives, but also the most efficacious means of cure. Persons who suffer from insufficient food, exposure, bad housing, long hours, and bad conditions of work are especially susceptible to tuberculosis, and thus it is rightly called a disease of poverty.
Early symptoms of tuberculosis include cough, hoarseness, loss of appetite, pain in the side, loss of weight, getting tired easily, feeling run down, rise in temperature in the afternoon, night sweats, expectoration, and spitting blood. No one, nor even several, of these symptoms necessarily indicates the presence of tuberculosis; on the other hand, even the cough is not necessarily present when tuberculosis actually exists. When one or more of these symptoms appears and continues, a thorough examination should be made by a doctor; examination can do no harm, certainly, if tuberculosis is not found, and if it is, immediate treatment is of the greatest importance. No known drug or medicine is a cure for tuberculosis. Successful treatment depends on taking
the disease in time and in following the doctor's advice unremittingly.
Cancer.
—The cause of cancer is not known. All the evidence, however, goes to show that it is neither communicable nor hereditary. Cancer may occur on the skin, stomach, or other organs; in women it most commonly occurs in the breast or uterus (womb). In both sexes it occurs most frequently after 40 years of age. No known medicine will cure cancer; salves and ointments have no effect. Radium and x-ray should not be relied upon if the cancer can be removed by operation. Safety consists in removing the growth entirely, and complete removal is possible only in the early stages.
Early diagnosis is consequently of the greatest possible importance, and an examination can do no harm in any case. Warts and moles on the skin may develop into cancer, and should be removed if they show signs of irritation. Loss of appetite and weight, any disturbance of the stomach or intestines, and sores that refuse to heal should lead a person to consult a physician; the same is true of any lump in the breast, and of irregular or persistent bleeding from the uterus in women over forty. The fact that pain is not present in cancer until the late stages leads many persons to neglect the trouble until it is
too far advanced for operation. Time is all-important; hope depends on operation in the early stages when there is a very great probability of permanent cure.