INDIANA HORTICULTURAJ. SOCIETY. 347 



disease, caused by the breathing of foul air, one would suppose that 

 farmers would be particularly free fi'om it. The statistics show, however, 

 that while there is less consumption in the country than in the cities, still 

 the difference is very small and the explanation why the disease prevails 

 among farmers to almost the same degree as among city people is because 

 the farmers as a rule do not ventilate their bedrooms and their houses. 

 The advantages accruing from living all day in the open air and in the 

 sunshine are entirely nullihed by sleeping in unventilated rooms at 

 night. If the farmers Avould see to it from this time forth that their 

 houses were thoroughly and continuously ventilated, consumption would 

 go down rapidly among their members. Another fact which farmers 

 must remember is that houses must be built up off from the ground, so as 

 to avoid dampness. The house that is built flat upon the ground, that is 

 damp and in which moiilds are known to grow is the home of consump- 

 tion. Only slight observation is necessary to confirm this statement. 

 Every dwelling house should be raised three feet above the ground and 

 have beneath it a dry well ventilated cellar. If this simple thing were 

 done, sickness and doctor's bills would decrease to an enormous degree. 

 There is a superstition that night air is injurious. People who harbor 

 tTMs superstltfon should remember that in the night there is nothin^r else 

 to breathe but night air. To shut it out by closing windows and doors 

 and then breathing over and over the night air that is in the house is th'"- 

 cause of disease. 



• "Only one State at the present time has a hospital for consumptive.*! 

 and this State is Massachusetts. At the State consumptive hospital 

 which is located at Rutland, Mass., the indigent consumptives of the 

 State are received. Eighty per cent, of the incipient cases are cured and 

 returned to their homes. AVhile at the hospital these patients are taught 

 how not to have consumption. They are taught that consumption is a 

 foul air disease and that people must breathe pure air. otherwise they will 

 suffer from consumption, pneumonia, cotighs, colds and other diseases of 

 the air passages. These people having been cured return to their homes 

 and become missionaries to teach others what they have learned and 

 what their experience exemplifies. The people at large generally listen 

 attentively to these patients Tind do not call them cranks, which they in- 

 variably do when doctors try to tell them the same thing. The greatest 

 advantage of the sanatorium is to supply a constant stream of teachers to 

 the people rather than to directly preserve a few hundred lives. 



"The Indi.'ina State Motlical Society at its last meeting held in Rich- 

 mond, early in June, appointed a committee of seven to investigate the 

 tuberculosis question in Indiana, to report with recommendations to the 

 next meeting. The State P.nard of He.nlth. at the present time, has ample 

 powers to take up vhe subject of educating the people concerning the 

 prevention of tuberculosis, but no means are supplied, and therefore the 

 machine lies almost Inactive." 



