UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE SIX
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1940
The Kansan Comments -- EDITORIALS LETTERS PATTER
A Primer of Tuberculosis
By Dr. Ralph I. Canuteson, M.D.
Director, Student Health Service
Tuberculosis has been known for over 2000 years, but the actual cause was not discovered until 1882 when Robert Koch isolated the tiny rod-shaped tubercule bacillus. Next he made an extract from the killed tubercle bacillus and its products of growth which he hoped would cure "consumption," as tuberculosis was commonly called. As a cure, it was not successful but when it was injected under the skin of an animal, or a human, an inflammation appeared at the site of injection and a fever was produced if the animal, or human, had been infected with tuberculosis. So it was introduced as a test to determine the presence of tuberculous infection. Because of the difficulties of carrying diagnosis further and of treating tuberculous cattle they are destroyed—a very efficient method of controlling infection but one hardly applicable to humans.
The success of controlling tuberculosis in cattle encouraged physicians to introduce a modification of the test in humans, only they could go farther by the use of the X-ray and the examination of sputum for tubercle bacilli. The tuberculin test has been refined, both in material used and in method, so that it is absolutely harmless. The presence of a "positive" reaction means that the individual has been infected with tubercle bacilli. It does not tell when, in what part of the body, nor to what extent. This must be determined by use of the X-ray, by examination of the sputum or stomach contents for tubercle bacilli doubled up or swallowed, by observations on the pulse, temperature, and weight and by blood examination.
two Types of TB
Two types of tuberculous infection are recognized: the primary, commonly called the childhood type, although it may occur at any age, and the secondary, or the adult type which may come only after the individual has had the primary infection. After the first year of life the primary type rarely is fatal and frequently passes by undiagnosed, healing commonly by the ultimate deposit of calcium in the infected area. The individual has now developed some mild degree of protection to subsequent infections with the tubercle bacillus, but he also has become sensitized to the growth products of the tubercle bacillus. As a rule, his state of sensitization remains, perhaps for a lifetime, resulting in a positive reaction whenever the tuberculin test is applied.
The secondary, or adult, type of tuberculous infection comes after the sensitized individual has been exposed through close contact with an active case tuberculosis, and it produces disability.
More Often Fatal to Girls
Tuberculosis is no respecter of classes, although it occurs more frequently where people live in crowded quarters and are inadequately fed. Boys are more frequently infected than girls, although the disease is more often fatal to girls. Negroes are more susceptible than whites and in them the death rate is higher Because close contact spreads tuberculosis, the infection rate is higher in cities than in rural areas. Between the ages of 1 to 10 years, deaths from the disease are infrequent; from the age of 10 to 14 the curve mounts rapidly to a plateau extending from age 24 to 40 years; thereafter it steadily drops with a slight secondary rise late in the old age group.
The infection rate, as represented by positive tuberculin tests, rises steadily from childhood to old age. In University of Kansas students approximately 35 per cent react positively; in the faculty group the figure increases to 75-80 per cent. In metropolitan districts the rate of infection among college students runs as high as 60 per cent.
The number of cases of active tuberculosis in the college age group (from 18 to 25 years) varies from 0.14 per cent to 0.3 per cent of the student population.
When tuberculosis is diagnosed early the chance of "cure" or complete arrest of the infection is good. An early diagnosis is one made before the onset of the classical symptoms of fatigue, loss of weight, fever and cough. Early diagnosis can be made by using the tuberculin test as a screen on the more susceptible age and employment groups, and following with X-ray of the positive reactors. Laboratory tests make the final decision of activity.
That tuberculosis can be eradicated seems entirely possible. The reduction of the death rate in Kansas in
the past 20 years from 200 per 100,000 population to 43 per 100,000 bears out the hope of complete victory over the "White Plague."
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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ... Reginald Buxton
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-chief
Associate editors
Bill Fey and Mary Lou Kandra
New York
Mark Warden
NEWS STAFF
Campus editors ... Stan Stauffer and Art O'Donnell
Sports editor ... Bob Trump
Society editor ... Betty West
Photographic editor ... Ed Garnish
Vice editor ... Orlando Epic
Makeup editor ... Pat Murdock
Rewrite editor ... Wandalea Carlson
Business Manager Rex Cowan
Advertising Manager Frank Baughmartier
Artist Print Ruth Smith
BUSINESS STAFF
Subscription rates, in advance, $3.00 per year, $1.75 per semester. Published at Lawrence, Kansas, daily during the school year. Expected Monday, June 29, and later as second class classmate. Mail to 17, 1910, at the post office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Vcl. 38 Sunday, Oct. 20, 1940 No. 26
Notices due at Chancellor's office at 3 p.m. on day before publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
DELTA PHI SIGMA: All members of Delta Phi Sigma, Congregation sorority, are urged to attend the pledging services at the church, Tuesday evening at 5:30. Pledge services will be followed by a supper and hayrick ride.-Freda Zimmerman.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION: Christian Science Organization will hold a regular meeting Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in the Pine Room of the Union building. All students, graduates, and faculty members are welcome.-Patricia Neil, secretary.
DRAMATIC CLUB: The Dramatic Club will meet at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon in the Little theatre, Green hall. Apprentices who have not paid their fees should do so at this time -David Watermilder, secretary.
EDUCATION FACULTY: There will be ameeting of the faculty of the School of Education at 4:30 in 115 Fraser on Tuesday. In addition to voting degrees there will be other important business-Deane W. Malott, chancellor.
ENGLISH LECTURE: The first of a series of lectures on Kansas writers, sponsored by the department of English, will be given Tuesday at 3:30 in Fraser, room 205. Miss Helen Rhoda Hoopes will discuss "Contemporary Poets". The lecture is open to the public—J. W. Ashton, chairman, Department of English.
NEWMAN CLUB: The regular discussion meeting of the Newman club will be held Tuesday evening at 7:30 in St. John's Church Hall. The club officers desire that all of those members who have not attended these Tuesday meetings strive to attend this meeting.Joseph A. Zishka.
JAY JANES: There will be a Jay Jane meeting in the Pine room of the Union building at 4:30 Wednesday—Ruth Spencer, president.
REINTERPRETATION OF RELIGION COMMISSION: The Y.W.-Y.M. Reinterpretation of Religion Commission will meet Tuesday at 4:30 at Henley House. The discussion will be "Christianity—So What?", led by Rev. Harold G. Barr—Mary Helen Wilson, Bob Collette.
PHI CHI THETA: Phi Chi Theta rush dinner at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday in the Old English room of the Union Building,—Mariorie Newmann.
WITAN: All members of the K.U. Witan are requested to attend a meeting in the Pine room at 2 p.m. today.—Haven Glassmire, president.
W. S.G.A.: W.S.G.A. Council will meet Tuesday at 7:00 in the Pine Room—Doris Twenty, secretary.
YOUNG REPUBLICAN CLUB: There will be a meeting of the Republican Club Monday at 8:00 in the Kansas Room of the Union Building. There will be a speaker. All Republicans are cordially invited.—Bill Douce, chairman.
University's Olive Tree Succumbs to the Drought
"I think that I shall never see . . . . "
Have you missed it, too?
The olive tree—the little, silvery-gray-green Russian olive that grew by the sidewalk just north of Dyche museum? It's gone, and a number of people have expressed regret at its passing.
If you aren't a newcomer, you probably will recall that tree even if you haven't missed it, because, artistically speaking, it was one of the most pleasing trees on the campus. The best view of it, perhaps, could be had from the west side of Oread Street, facing south. If one stood, say, north of the Memorial Union building and looked toward Fraser and Blake, the olive tree was straight in the line of vision.
'Curce and a Quirk'
It wasn't a large or impressive tree, but there was a Japanese-print air about it that made one like it. The trunk had a curce and a quirk, and the limbs arched out over the street to mingle with the outer branches of the hackberry trees opposite. It was a friendly tree, too; it grew so close to the sidewalk that, as one passed by, his elbow might graze the trunk, or the bunchy suckers about the base might brush against you.
That olive tree, according to Prof. W. C. Stevens of the department of botany, was probably a victim of the Middle-west's recent 7-year drought cycle. The Russian olive is a hardy tree; but even such hardy trees as the burr oak and elm did not always survive the terrific heat of the drought summers. Drought doesn't often kill old trees outright; usually it deals blows which wound deeply and eventually cause death. The first three summers of heat the olive树 withstood unharmed, but after that it began to sicken. This past summer, even though the heat was less severe, signs of decay were unmistakable. One large limb over the street was dead, and the whole tree had a tired, scraggy look. During late August only a few branches had enough
strength to produce the small longstemmed "olives," which, according to Professor Stevens, are not olives at all; the Russian olive is in no way connected botanically with the true olive trees.
A Species for Study
And so, the tree has been removed. Now, if yo uwil notice, there is only a smooth, grassless place where the olive used to grow. No more will the trees and shrubs classes gather beneath it and scribble in their notebooks: "Elaeagnus angustifolia, hardy tree-like shrub, used mostly for ornamental purposes."
Probably no one knows what kind of tree inspired Joyce Kilmer to write his popular poem about tree. Perhaps it was a tall stately pine, or a friendly spreading elm; but it might well have been a little Russian olive with a quirk in the trunk and droopy, silver-green branches. — EB.
Jones Attends Tulsa Meeting
Prof. Odgen S. Jones, department of geology, attended the twenty-ninth annual convention of the Southwest section of the American Water Works association in Tulsa last Wednesday.
ROCK CHALK TALK
BY HEIDI VIETS
Font of inspiration for Orville S. McPherson, publisher of the Kansas City Journal, is a glass of water. And if no glass is available, water he must have just the same.
Yesterday morning at the journalism conference general session Mr. McPherson was scheduled to speak. Before the meeting he went downstairs in Fraser to get a drink, hoping those few gulps would last him. But they didn't. Under the heat of his own speaking he was forced to plead, "Just a minute," and leave his audience to run downstairs again.
Finally a glass was provided by the combined efforts of Mary Lou Randall and Siegfried Michelson.
Parents beamed last night to find how smart Johnny and Janie had become, so adroitly did they pin down professors with third-degree queries.
After running and rooting in the nightshirt parade, wasn't it fun to see the picture on page two of the Kansas City Times yesterday morning?
Yesterday may always be remembered as a razzle-dazzle day. What couldn't we accomplish if all 365 days of the year were electrified with such hysterical good will and one-for-all-ism.
That corpse act at the half brought more cheers and comment from the non-collegiate spectators than might be expected, considering that grid warfare was the number one attraction. Even though a cold and stiff Cornhusker was the product of wishful thinking, the act was four-star.
For breeziness in time of stress, we nominate the announcer's remark: "They've decided to stop playing."
And for bombastic unity we reluctantly praise the Nebraska pep squad. They really had "omph"—darn it.