Tuberculosis as a disease of the masses, and how to combat it : prize essay / by S. A.. Knopf.

  • Knopf, S. Adolphus (Sigard Adolphus), 1857-1940.
Date:
1901
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tuberculosis as a disease of the masses, and how to combat it : prize essay / by S. A.. Knopf. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    CHAPTEK XX. How CAN Childken be Pkotected from Scrofula and Other Forms of Tuberculosis ? Scrofula may be either hereditary or acquii-ed. The hereditary type comes from parents who are scrofulous, tuberculous, or syphi- litic. It has also been proved that when one or both of the par- ents were alcoholics, that is to say, addicted to the chronic use of intoxicants, then.' offspring has become scrofulous. AU this shows how dangerous it is for weakly and sickly per- sons, or those afflicted with any of the above enumerated diseases, to marry and have children before being completely restored to health. We wish to state again that all these diseases can be cured by timely medical treatment. To be cured fr-om alcoholism the physician’s help is not always necessary; inmost cases it requires only the earnest and honest endeavor to abstain. The causes of acquii-ed scrofula in children are to be sought in imhygienic environments and conditions, such as unhealthy dwell- ings, damp, crowded, unclean, and badly ventilated rooms, much indoor life, underfeeding, exposure, and colds brought about by insufficient clothing and lack of care. In fact, one may say the same conditions which produce favorable soil for the invasion of the germs of consumption in the adult are conducive to the de- velopment of scrofida in children. How these conditions are to be overcome we have endeavored to explain in Chapters XII., XIV., and XV., and we will speak of them in their sociological aspect in Chapter XXVIII. On page 41 we stated that it is extremely rare for tuberculosis to be directly transmitted, and that in children the contagion nearly always takes place while they are very young. We will now ex- plain the various ways in which a healthy child may become tuberculous, and learn therefrom how to protect it from the dan- ger of getting the disease, either by inhalation, ingestion, or inoc- ulation. The most common modes of infection dm'ing early childhood are perhaps the following: The consumptive mother caresses the Hereditary Causes of Scrofula. Acquired Causes of Scrofula.