THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS I8f 



Sometimes it is in the glands of the skin, causing them to swell 

 and thus producing scrofula. It grows in the kidneys, caus- 

 ing nephritis, or in the brain, occasioning some forms of 

 meningitis. It brings about joint troubles, one of which is 

 hip disease. But the most common trouble, and the most 

 serious of all, results when it attacks the lungs and brings on 

 consumption. Here it produces nodules, or tubercles (hence 

 the name, tuberculosis), causing the lung tissue to degenerate, 

 sometimes to the extent of breaking through into the blood 

 vessels, and producing bleeding in the lungs, or hemorrhages, 

 as they are called. Oftentimes these diseased places heal, 

 leaving the lungs more or less solid in the places' where the 

 germs have been working. But if the disease progresses suffi- 

 ciently, the person becomes more and more poisoned by the 

 germs, the lungs become more and more impaired in their 

 functions, until death occurs. In most communities this 

 disease causes more deaths than any other. In some, 

 pneumonia causes a higher death rate. 



The War against Tuberculosis. For centuries mankind 

 has known of this disease and has been helpless before it. 

 Its cause was not known, no cure had been discovered, and 

 nothing could be done to check its ravages. But in the 

 last thirty years great advances have been made, and to-day 

 we are armed with many means of fighting it. We have 

 learned that not all persons who contract the disease die, 

 as was formerly supposed. It has lately been shown that 

 most persons who have reached adult life have at some time 

 had an attack of this disease and have recovered without 

 even knowing that they had had it. In such cases the attack 

 probably appeared as a cold, which persisted for a time, but 

 finally disappeared. This shows that even when the germ 

 gets into the body, the body has strong powers of resisting 

 and overcoming it. When the trouble is discovered at the 

 outset, the chances for recovery are good, if the person at- 

 tacked will live out of doors, where he may breathe fresh air 



