1340 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



infections disease caused by bacillus tuberculosis and characterized l)y 

 tbe formation of tubercles in the tissues. These tubercles undergo case- 

 ous necrosis and tend to spread in all directions, more especially in the 

 route of least resistance. Infection may also be disseminated throughout 

 tho body tbroujih the lymph and blood-vessels. The degenerated tubercles 

 break down, forming in the interior of the body cavities filled with 

 purulent liquid and degenerated matters. The various tissues and organs, 

 as the lungs and the lymphatic system, are especially prone to infection, 

 to a less degree the spleen, kidney, liver, intestines and brain are liable 

 to become infected. The bacillus will not grow outside of the body 

 except in an artificially prepared medium. You are to understand that it 

 will not multiply in dust or clothing. A house or clothing or place in the 

 street becomes infected by a person who has the disease expectorating on 

 the floor, on the street, sitting in the yard expectorating, expectorating 

 on carpets. It dries and the winds carry it. We all breathe it. If our 

 physiological resistance is good, we destroy it. If our vitality is low and 

 continues so. we can not destroy the bacillus; in time it assumes the 

 ma.«tery and we fall beneath its blows. 



Upon receipt of the invitation to read a paper before this institute I 

 wrote Dr. .T. N. Hurty, wliom you all know as the efficient Secretary of 

 the State Board of Health. Dr. Hurty stands at the head of the medical 

 profession in Indiana today in preventive medicine. To my request for 

 statistics, he gave me such a kind and interested reply that I give you his 

 letter. He said: "In 1902 there were 4,392 deaths from tuberculosis in 

 Indiana. Almost two-thirds of this number were females, which is a 

 significant fact. This is accounted for on the basis that women more 

 generally work in the house and "do not have the advantages of outdoor 

 air and sunshine to the same extent as men. While tuberculosis attacks 

 persons of all agos, it Is most destructive between the ages of fifteen and 

 thirty-five. After the age of thirty-five, the deaths decrease from this 

 cause very rapidly. To illustrate this, in 1902 tliere were between the 

 ages of ten and fifteen, ninety-seven deaths, and now mark how thoy 

 jump up when they come to the next age periods. Between fifteen and 

 twenty there were 399 deaths. Between twenty and twenty-five there 

 were G70 deaths, between twenty-five and thirty 594 deaths, and between 

 thirty and thirty-five 464 deaths. From this period on there is a steady 

 decrease in death from tuberculosis. The lesson of this is, tuberculosis 

 show.s a preference for the most productive and useful period of life. 

 About the time the child has been educated at the expense of the State, 

 after reaching the age of fifteen, then it becomes extraordinarily suscepti- 

 ble to tuberculosis. This susceptibility is to a great degree caused by the 

 child being compelled to. breathe so much bad air at school. Being forced 

 fo sit hours after hours in schoolrooms which are filled with foul air, the 

 breathing organs become weakened and leaves them open to the invasion 

 of consumption infection. Inasmuch as consumption is purely a Ijouse 



