THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 183 



own acclimated and experienced specialists and 

 general practitioners; but this contagious mono- 

 mania goes further yet in being little short of 

 heathenish ! Pamphlets composed in hotbeds of the 

 disease — East Texas, for instance — are scattered 

 broadcast through the dry, sun-baked, aseptic at- 

 mosphere of West Texas and New Mexico, prompt- 

 ly producing pop-eyed hysteria in the hitherto tran- 

 quil inhabitants. Suggestion indeed ! Pity 'tis that 

 the pendulum of human opinion takes so long to 

 settle into place ! We who have risen up and sat down 

 these many years with the consumptive, we who 

 have taken sensible precautions in our intercourse 

 with him and we who have taken none, may have 

 found such intercourse oftentimes very unpleasant 

 but w^uld in all probability fail to present one soli- 

 tary case of tuberculosis, either contracted or spor- 

 adic, among Americans long resident in this section, 

 provided they did not settle here for cause, i. e., for 

 tuberculous cause. The Mexicans, they and their 

 Chihuahua dogs, are acutely susceptible to the dis- 

 ease. If, by chance, an American is mentioned as 

 being tuberculous, searching inquiry proves that 

 the person in question is either a relapsed health- 

 seeker of long standing, or the offspring of health- 

 seekers. This, at least, has been my experience. 



That our residential population should wake to 

 possible dangers is very right, mete and proper and 

 our bounden duty, if only this waking up be kept 

 within decent, nay Christian bounds. Hygiene is 

 wise and good; cowardly and insenate terror can- 

 not be thus classified. 



