The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of over 8000 Weekly. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1908.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3752, 8 April 1908, Page 2

The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of over 8000 Weekly. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1908.

A report which has just been issued by the Medical Department of the English Local Government Board gives some hope that tuberculosis may eventually be eradicated.and that at the present time it is a less subject for dread than has hitherto been the case. The report has been compiled by Dr T. Bulstrode, one of the inspectors of the board. The embodied statistics show an extraordinary decrease in the number of deaths in England and Wales from consumption. During the first half of the last century the mortality from con r sumption was enormous. In 1838 this disease destroyed 50,025 lives, which was equivalent to 39.9 for each 10,000 of the population. In 1906 tuberculosis only accounted for 39,740 lives, equal to 11.5 for each 10,000 persons. The . report compares these figures and takes a very hopeful view of the situation, j It draws the infer*

ence that, as the mortality in 1906 was about equal to the decrease observed during the preceding 30 years, it follows that the disease will disappear totally 30 years hence, provided the decrease in the number of deaths continues at the same rate. Between 1905 and 1906, however, there was no diminution in the mortality from the disease. What is the cause of tho diminished death rate? The report says it cannot be ascribed entirely, or even mainly, to the discovery of the tubercle bacillus, and the consequent legislation intended to prevent the sale of meat and milk derived from tuberculosis cattle. Dr Koch's discovery was not made till 1882, and had no effect upon legislation for some years afterwards. Yet in 1885 the mortality from consumption had shrunk from 39.9 for each 10,000 in 1838, to 18. Neither can the lessened deadliness be attributed to the establishment of sanatoria, for few, if any, were operative in 1885. Dr Hulstrade has been unable to find that they have produced any perceptible effect upon the rate of decline of consumption either in England or Wales, or in countries possessing such institutions, as compared with those which have none. The records of the English sanatoria, he says, show that in the case of a very large proportion of the patients they have done little more than postpone the fatal issue of the malady. That seems to have happened in the case of tuberculosis, ; which is known to have occurred in the case of other germ diseases —to wit, a gradual weakening of the virulent form of the hostile bacillus ccupled with a simultaneous increase in the power of resistance evinced by the friendly microbes which constitute the garrison of the human body. It has been proved by post mortem examinations in many parts of the world that consumption is less fatal than it used to be, and that great numbers of persons who have died from other maladies, present unmistakable trace 3 of having been infected by tuberculosis at some earlier period, and have overcome the tendency of the infected portion of the lung to soften and disintegrate. The inference is that the bacillus of conI sumption, whether it reach the lungs ! through the respiratory passages, or i finds its way thither from tuberculosis meat or milk, may either lapse into a passive state for a long time or permanently, or be roused into activity by external circumstances adverse to health. The report from which we have quoted at such length must be accepted as embodying the i latest ascertained facts with regard |to this terrible disease. Those we ' have set forth are the most encouraging that have, so far as we' know j I ever been penned. The report does not say much for the efficaciousness < of sanatoria, the direction in which ;we in this Dominion are expending our energies at the present time.