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Show Daily Health Service Danger of Pneumonia Increa$ed by Crowd (This la the second of five special articles by Dr. Fishbein on the nature na-ture of pneumonia, its treatment and precautions to curb its spread.) By . MOEBIS FISHBEIN Pneumonia occurs in persons of all ages, but Is rather rare during the first year of life. It la much more serious during the earlier and later years of life than during the middle age. The rata of Incidence . and death la very high during infancy, decreasing up to the age of 10 and then very gradually Increasing up to the age of 40, when it again begins to become exceedingly high. For some reason pneumonia Is much more serious In the colored race then In the white. It follows! frequenty after such conditions as measles, smallpox, scarlet fever and even after typhoid. There seems to be good evidence that exposure to severe fatigue, bad weather and to malnutrition gives the germs of pneumonia greater opportunity to attack. j For tome years It has been be lleved that hard drinkers were more likely to suffer with pneumonia than! others, but this also has been related to the fact that hard drinkers occasionally occa-sionally lie out In the open and are exposed to rain and freesing temperatures tem-peratures for long periods of time. Modern evidence points to the tact that crowding is an important factor in the occurrence of pneumonia. The disease is found more frequently in the city than in the country and Is probably more often fatal In the city than In the country. The chance for infection from one person to another Is much greater where people are crowded together as In trains, street cars, theaters, motion mo-tion picture houses, tenements and under similar conditions. Under such conditions germs pass directly from the mouth, nose and throat of one to another. When the germs of pneumonia attack at-tack the lung it becomes filled with blood so that quite soon the person begins coughing and spitting material mate-rial which contains the red streaks showing the presence of blood in the lung. The lung is. moreover, rather solid because of the presence of the material ma-terial in It When the phyician thumps tho cheat over the lungs it gives forth the dull sound of a solid object rather than the resonant reverberation re-verberation of one which is full of air. After a period of time, depending on the severity of the condition, the lung begins te clear up, the breath-lag breath-lag takes place with less difficulty. At the same time the fever goes down. Hexto. Bew reasaenla Strikes, |