444 MICROORGANISMS 



words, that the amount of resistance against the disease is a 

 matter of heredity. For this reason, people who have tuber- 

 culosis in the family need to be extremely careful to avoid 

 infection and to avoid conditions which are conducive to infec- 

 tion, for they are likely more susceptible than are others who 

 have no tuberculosis in their ancestry. 



516. Tuberculosis Curable. We hear a good deal in these 

 days in newspapers, in popular magazines, and in the adver- 

 tisements of sanitariums to the effect that tuberculosis is a 

 curable disease. This is no doubt true and the means of cure 

 sound comparatively simple. They consist of rest, plenty of 

 fresh pure air day and night, and plenty of good wholesome food. 

 But no one should be deluded by the fact that the disease is 

 curable by these means into being careless about contracting 

 it. One great danger of the disease lies in the fact that one 

 may be affected by it for months or even years before the fact 

 is easily determined and then it is often too late to hope for a 

 cure. If one is once seriously infected with tuberculosis, he 

 is not likely ever to be able to do much else but obtain a cure, 

 if he is ever successful in so doing. Many people with ap- 

 parently high resistance have slight attacks of tuberculosis and 

 recover without ever knowing that they had it. One investi- 

 gator made a comprehensive study of the bodies of 500 

 persons who had died from various causes and he found evi- 

 dences of former tubercular infection in 97 per cent, of the 

 bodies. Doubtless most of these people had never known of 

 the attack. 



Our chief defenses against this disease are our natural resist- 

 ance, and vigorous health. As long as the disease is as preva- 

 lent as it is, we can hardly hope to escape entirely chances of 

 infection. We should do what we can to escape the organism 

 but we should rely mainly on being able to overcome it when it 

 attacks us. We should all try to live all the time much as a 

 tubercular patient must live. We may not need so much rest 

 but we all need the fresh air and the wholesome nourishing 

 food. 



