Predisposition to tuberculosis should be understood by every child before he is accepted as an industrial soldier. Many trades now dangerous would be made safe if workers knew the risk they run, and if society forbade such trades needlessly to exhaust their employees. A perfectly sound man is predisposed to tuberculosis if he elects to work in stale, dust-laden air. Ill-ventilated rooms, cramped positions, lack of exercise in the open air, prepare lungs to give a cordial reception to tubercle bacilli. Rooms as well as persons become infected. Fortunately, opportunities to work are so varied in most localities that workers predisposed to tuberculosis may be sure of a livelihood in an occupation suited to their vitality. Destruction of germs in the air, in carpets, on walls, on streets, is quite as important as destruction of germs in lungs. Why should not tenants and workers require health certificates stating that neither house nor working place is infected with tubercle bacilli? Some cities now compel the disinfection of premises occupied by tuberculous persons after their removal. Landlords, employers, tenants, and employees can easily be taught to see the advantage of disinfecting premises occupied by tuberculous cases before detection.
FIGHTING FEATHER DUSTERS IS ONE OBJECT OF SEA-AIR HOSPITALS FOR BONE TUBERCULOSIS
Dry cleaning, feather dusters, dust-laden air, will disappear from schoolrooms within twenty-four hours after school-teachers declare that they shall disappear. We have no right to expect street cleaners, tenement and shop janitors, or overworked mothers to be more careful than school-teachers. Last year I said to a janitress, "Don't you realize that you may get consumption if you use that feather duster?" Her reply caused us to realize our carelessness: "I don't want any more than I've got now." Shall we some day have compulsory examination and instruction of all cleaners, starting with school cleaners?
FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS IN OPEN TENTS
Taxing is swift to follow teaching in matters of health. Teachers can easily compute what their community loses from tuberculosis. The totals will for some time prove a convincing argument for cleanliness of air, of body, and of building wherever the community is responsible for air, building, and body. The annual cost of tuberculosis to New York City is estimated at $23,000,000 and to the United States at $330,000,000. The cost of exterminating it will be but a drop in the bucket if school-teachers do their part this next generation with the twenty million children whose day environment they control for three fourths of the year, and whose habits they can determine.
The first meeting in America of the International Congress on Tuberculosis was held at Washington, D.C., September 21 to October 12, 1908. For many years the proceedings of this congress will undoubtedly be the chief reference book on the conquest of tuberculosis.[14]
How many aspects there are to this problem, and how many kinds of people may be enlisted, may be seen from the seven section names: I. Pathology and Bacteriology; II. Sanatoriums, Hospitals, and Dispensaries; III. Surgery and Orthopedics; IV. Tuberculosis in Children—Etiology, Prevention, and Treatment; V. Hygienic, Social, Industrial, and Economic Aspects; VI. State and Municipal Control of Tuberculosis; VII. Tuberculosis in Animals and Its Relation to Man.