MICEOBE OF GREAT WHITE PLAGUE 219 



ceeded to explain how he had wrought the mar- 

 velous cure. But that very moment this man was 

 himself in the last stages of consumption! With- 

 in four short months he slept in a consumptive's 

 grave! 



These facts are by no means peculiar to any one 

 community. They doubtless are patent the world 

 over. They are here cited to show how indiffer- 

 ent people generally are in regard to the dangers 

 of the Great White Plague. They seem to think 

 that it is in no wise contagious, but that it comes 

 in some mysterious way without any special cause ! 



The National Association for the Prevention of 

 Tuberculosis appoints the last Sunday in April, 

 Tuberculosis Day; requesting every clergyman in 

 the United States to devote the day to the con- 

 sideration of this disease. The result shows that 

 the average clergyman knows about as much about 

 tuberculosis, and is about as much interested in it, 

 as the average layman! 



The Red Cross attains about the same result. 



Why this general apathy? In the face of a 

 thousand facts which ought to arouse every com- 

 munity in the world to immediate action, why this 

 dreaming indifference? Manifestly because people 

 generally, lay and professional alike, are not well 

 informed as to the nature of tuberculosis; because 

 they do not believe^ or, at least, do not sharply 

 realize, that the disease is contagious and infec- 

 tious; because, more especially, the disease is so 

 slow in its development. 



