The Chippeway herald. [volume], April 01, 1909, Image 1

About The Chippeway herald. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1902-19??

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
VOL 8.
TUBERCULOSIS.
CAUSES, PRETENTION AND TREATMENT.
TpA OW, before I say anything about
T |«OT the prevention of tuberculosis, I
Off want to tell you something about
the coui se of this disease. It is what
is called an insiduous disease, meaning
deceptive or sly, it is slow and quiet
as a usual thing when it first starts.
It does not make you feel real sick
sometimes for quite a while after you
first contract it. You may have it
for months before you really know any
thing about it. It is sometimes very
hard to tell just when we are first
exposed to it; and when we first feel
the symptoms of the disease we are
pi one to think it is something else. A
consumptive never thinks he has con
sumption. And this is one ©f the
reasons why it is so. hard to control
and prevent from spreading.
Now as to the prevention of tubercu
losis; this is really also a very
important part of the treatment also.
The medical profession all over the
world attempting to conquer all dis
eases, especially contagious an infec
tious diseases, meaning those diseases
that we can catch from one another and
which are all caused by a small germ
or bacillus, eachdisease being caused ;
by a separate and distinct germ. You ’
know, if you could stop or prevent con
tagious diseas s from spreading from
one person to another you could enven
tually cause those diseases to disappear
altogether; and this is what we want
to do with tuberculosis. It looks nearly
like a forlorn hope and that we might .
never accomplish it. But even now
results can be seen in a number of
cities, where the death rate from tuber
culosis as gradually getting less and
less. How is this being done? And |
how can we do any' good on this reser
vation? EDUCATION-that is the
“fCd vic ration, Civilization and Citizenship.”
WHITE EARTH, MINN.
BY DR. RALPH H. ROSS
: keystone io nearly everything and that
is what ’doing the good now. It is a
. long persevering process-you can’t get
an education in a day, neither can you
: cure a consumption nor prevent the
spread of tuberculosis in a day. I can
remember when I was among the Sioux
Indians of Standing Rock ten years
: ago, and time and again made visits
to consumptive Indians and saw their
relative and friends all sitting J
waiting for them to die, andson.e Aunt
or grand mother was usually making
a pair of moccasins, beaded on the
bottom, to bury them in. But, I said,
he may get well. No, they said “he
die, he got consumption”. That settled
it in their minds, and nothing I could
say 7 or do would make them think any 7
different or arouse in them a fighting
spirit to conquer this frightful disease,
for that is one of the means by which it
must be conquered. What has aroused
the white people all over the world to
fight and kill this diseae? Let me tell
you; because it is killing them. Just
think, year after year, from 200,000 to
250,000 citizens of this country 7 die each
year of consumption. “Now two-thirds
to three fourths of these, our fellow
' countrymen, die between the ages of
eighteen and forty five, that is to say ■
at the time of life when their earniugj
capacitiy is the gaeat'est, when their-
i
life is of more value in dollsrs and ■
cent. It has been estimated that the
value of a life of a single individual
during his prime, from 18 to 45 years
!is only J 1500. And if we only take
estimate • f 100,000 as the number of
people w die in their prime, then
through this single disease alone there
is a loss to these people and therefore
to the prosperity of the country 7 of $l5O,
000,000. every year - Add to this the
anguish and sorrow, the tears of moth-
APRIL, 1909.
ers, orphans and widows, and then
you will agree with me when I say
that tuberculosis is the most moderous
and most costly affliction of all the
enemies of the human race,” Prof,
Irving Fisher has estimated the death
rate from tuderculosis in the United
States to be 164 per 100,000 of the popu
lation, that is 164 people out of every
100,000 die of consumption every year
in the'U. S.
About one seventh of all the dsaths
are caused by 7 tuberculosis, while the
death rate among some of the Indian
tribes is as high as one death in three.
Now, can you wonder why we must
“kill” this disease before it kills us?
And, as I said before the chi«f way to
do this is to educate the people and to
show them how they can prevent them
selves from catching this disease and
at the same time how they should treat
people who already have the disease.
Likewise consumptives, themselves,
should be instructed how they can pre
vent others from catching the disease
from them and also how they can cure
themselves. For it must be remem
bered, and this I wish to impress upon
your mind that eight person ont of
every 7 ten can be cuied of tuberculosis
if, in the beginning when this disease
first attacks them, they will go to a
physician and will follow exactly the
course of treatment that he lays down
for tnem. Now, don’t forget this, is
for this what I want you to tell your
friends and relatives ' when you leave
this school and scatter out on the reser
vation.
Well, to prevent this disease from
spreading from one person to another
you must destroy or kill all the
germs the comsumptive coughs up, so
that they will not become attached to
particles of dust, float around in the
atmosphere and be breathed into our
lungs. This can be done tn a number
of ways; one of the best is to let the
consumptive spit into a small piece of
old cloth and then immediately- burn it
up; or expectorate into-a cup or basin
that has water with caobolic acid in
NO. 8