Report.

  • South Africa. Tuberculosis Commission.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    365/396 (page 343)
    (e) As practically every resident in northern Europe even at the present day is attacked before the age of 30, the tubercle bacillus must be very widely spread; the falliiip' death-rate, therefore, cannot be due to' a diminished risk of ijifection, but may be oxplaiiicd on the assumption of au increased constitutional resistance of the population. This is an inherited characteristic. (/) The falling (leath-riite from tuberculosis that is occurring in England is due in part, at least, to a selective death-iate possibly aided, in recent years, by tlie progTessively increasing mean age of marriage. (g) Modern bacteriological research tends to show that infection by the respira- tory passages is not nearly so common as was theretofore believed; and that at all ages, infection by the alimentary tract is of great importance. (/)) That amongst African natives wlio liave, presumably, escaped infection in childhood, the amount of primary abdominal tuberculosis is very large; in- dicating the frequency with which the bacillus is introduced through the alimen- tary canal. (/) If these dediiction.s are correct, muc\i of the money wliich is now being- spent on the tuberculosis campaign is being wasted; the proposed stringent legislalixe coiitiol of the movements of the affected would lie needlessly cruel; in short, onr efforts are being directed into wrong channels. The erection of sanatoria must be regarded not as of economic value, but solely as a humani- tarian effort to relieve the sufferings of those attacked by this disease. No attempt has been made to provide an explanation of all the facts in regard to tuberculosis; ])rogre.ss can only be made by a careful sifting of the available evidence and by ruthlessly discarding any theories which are not supported by all the facts at our disposal. If we are to keep medicine on a scientific plane, we must be able to give a reason of the faith that is in us. But while we have for many years past preached the infectious nature of tuberculosis to .such an extent that it has become one of the articles of faith of orthodox medicine, yet how many medical men could adduce a single incontrovertible fact in support of this doctrine. Finally, it may again be pointed out that the data here discussed in relation to the ]iroblem of the infectious natiire of this disease are entirely European in origin, and it does not therefore follow that the conclusions deduced are necessarily applicable to a population undei' different conditions for instance the natives of Africa.