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propogates'tuberculosis at a frightful rate. During slavery 

 times the negro was as free from tuberculosis as were the 

 white people at that time. 



The constant and uniform appearance of deaths from 

 tuberculosis are accepted by the people as inevitable. This 

 constant contact breeds a tolerance which merges into an 

 indifferent fatalism that is more becoming to the ignorance 

 and superstition of the heathen than the intelligent and 

 highly civilized American or European. We legislate, 

 quarantine and use all the methods known to expert medi- 

 cal men, when cholera, yellow fever or small-pox enters or 

 thriiatens to enter, our country or State. Yet only a few 

 States legally recognize tuberculosis as an infectious disease 

 that annually destroys more lives than all of the three fright- 

 ful diseases just mentioned. 



"If we take the whole civilized world and compare with 

 the tuberculous mortality all the accumulated deaths from 

 war, famine, plague, cholera, yellow fever and small-pox, 

 we find that the latter are comparatively insignificant. Yet 

 tuberculosis like every other germ disease is absolutely 

 preventable and is allowed to continue its career of death 

 because of reprehensible ignorance and criminal indiffer- 

 ence" (Law). 



THE EXCITING OR ORIGINATING CAUSE OF TUBERCULOSIS. 



Since Koch's discovery of the bacillus tuberculosis, the 

 study of this disease has been thorough and systematic. It 

 is now a well established fact that tuberculosis can not exist 

 without the presence of the living tubercle bacillus. This 

 microbe or germ is a one-celled plant, having the shape of a 

 very delicate rod, about 1-2500 of an inch long and about 

 1-10 as broad as long. This rod is usually almost straight 

 but may be slightly curved. It may appear alone, in pairs, 

 or in irregular groups or masses. It absorbs coloring mat- 

 ters (stains) very slowly; but when once stained it holds 

 the stain with great tenacity. It will hold certain stains 

 when all or nearly all other germs become discolorized. 



