Search

It is the time for the discussion of birth control, in spite of the recent great loss of manhood in Europe,--and to some extent in the U.S. Out of 200,000 individual's who die from it annually in the United States, 50,000 are children. The economic loss alone, figuring the average child's life as seven and one-half years and its annual cost to the community at only $200, is $75,000,000. At least 50 per cent of women afflicted with tuberculosis, even when only in the relatively early and curable stages, die as a result of pregnancy which could have been avoided. That insanity, idiocy, epilepsy, and alcoholic predisposition are often transmitted from parent to child is now universally admitted.

The article focuses on tuberculosis cases in France after the war. The word tuberculosis comes from tubercle, which signifies a small rounded body, resembling a pin head and easily visible to the naked eye. The bacilli are lodged in these tubercles, of which they cause the formation. These germs give off certain poisonous substances called toxins which cause the symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, early as well as late. The earlier symptoms, which can be easily recognized by the layman, are a long-continued cough with or without expectoration or hoarseness, loss of flesh, flush or pallor in the face, feverish sensations in the afternoon, occasional night sweats, chilly sensations in the morning, loss of appetite and sometimes a little streak of blood in the expectoration.

The article throws light on the prevention and cure of tuberculosis in pregnant women. To prevent tuberculosis, every married woman should have an annual health examination -and at- least a two-year interval to recover from pregnancy before getting into that condition again. The three major factors undermining the germ of tuberculosis include: underfeeding, overcrowding and insufficient clothing. Thus, had timely and careful prevention of conception been instituted, those pregnant mothers might have lived many more years, because uncomplicated tuberculosis is curable in most instances.

The present winter season has been an unusually severe one, and the morbidity and mortality from pneumonia in army and pneumonia has been very high. Overcrowding, insufficient clothing, and an inadequate provision for trained nurses, which necessitated reliance on untrained orderlies, must be in part held responsible for veritable epidemics in some of the camps. Not withstanding these untoward conditions, the death-rate has not been much above the average. Pulmonary tuberculosis frequently develops after an attack of pneumonia. Among soldiers this development of tuberculosis is of course quite as frequent as among the civilian population. No special climatic advantages are necessary; pure air, quiet, and easy accessibility with ordinary sanitary equipment being all that is necessary for a home for the convalescent pneumonic.