WORKERS AND THE "WHITE PLAGUE."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9570, 17 August 1909, Page 4

WORKERS AND THE "WHITE PLAGUE."

In the course of an address at the opening in Whi tachapel, London, of the exhibition organised by the National Association for the Prevention of Consumption. Mr John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, gave this wholesome advice — "Workmen have got to realise that to reciprocate the advice of the doctor, the help of the State, the municipality, ani associations like this, they must their

wages more wisely, selecting better ' food, and paying higher rent to avoid | the scourge of consumption. Alcohol, in the opinion of celebrated doctors, predisposes the individual to tuberculosis by its paralysing action. The public-house is the purveyor of tuberculosis. The infection of healthy* people by the sputum of consumptives is one of the most prolific sources of this disease. The condition of the streets is not so bad as J formerly, but it is still very bad in certain districts. Does it not occtir to you that there are over 100,000 public spittoons in the streets of London—so for every mile of street — in the shape of the s'reet gullies in the gutter? These should be used by asthmatic, bronchjal, and consumptive people Something should be done to dampen the dust of the streets. Dus'; is increasing as the hard granite pavements arc being done away with, and I hope the day is not far distant when the wealthiest city in the worid, which is rapidly becoming the healthiest city in the w.irld, will have a continuous trickle of water running down every gutter night [and day. Ic that W3re dona, not only consumption, but many other infectious diseases would be partly removed."