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With the above letter a notification card was issued and a short memorandum for the
information and guidance of consumptive persons, to the following effect:—
CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION.
"Consumption is a catching disease, and is caused by a living germ or microbe. The germs
abound in the expectoration or spit of the consumptive person and infect everything they
touch. Falling on to the ground, in spit, and becoming dry, the germs rise into the air,
and, as dust, are taken into the lungs in breathing. This is the common cause of the spread
of consumption, especially to those who are naturally liable to the disease.
"The germs of consumption may live for months in dark and dirty rooms and keep their power to
infect. Sunlight and fresh air kill the germs."
"If there were no spitting about in improper ways and places, there would be little reason to
fear the spread of consumption.
"Note.—Over-fatigue, intemperance, foul air from bad drains, the re-breathing of air
owing to want of ventilation, dampness and filthy conditions in houses, yards, etc.,
and dusty occupations, are chief causes of consumption in persons exposed to infection,
and especially to those who have a natural or an acquired liability to the disease."
PRECAUTIONS FOR CONSUMPTIVE PERSONS.
"Spit, when at home, into a proper receptacle containing a disinfectant; put the contents into
the fire; then cleanse the receptacle with boiling water: but small paper bags or pieces of
paper may be used for the spit, and these should be at once burned.
"Spit, when out-of-doors, into a suitable corked bottle, which should be washed out with boiling
water after the contents have been burned; but a small paper handkerchief may be used, and
this should be burned before becoming dry. Ordinary handkerchiefs, if used, should be put
into boiling water and washed while still wet.
"Do not swallow the spit, as it may carry the disease to other parts of the body.
"Sleep with windows open, top and bottom, but protected against draughts. Use a separate
bedroom, if possible, and in any case sleep alone.
"Cleanse rooms with wet cloths and not by sweeping or dusting : it is dangerous to stir up dust.
" Neglect of these precautions will delay, and may prevent, recovery of health.
"Note.—Anyone in health may live with a consumptive person without serious risk of
catching the disease if the above directions are carried out. Warmly clad, the consumptive
person can hardly be too much in the open air."
A copy of the Council's leaflet on" The Prevention of Consumption " accompanied the
above documents, and also leaflets, issued by The National Association for the Prevention of
Consumption, etc., on "Ventilation" and "Disinfection." A stock of sputum outfits was
provided for the use of medical men, on application. It will take some time, probably, to obtain
any large effect from the proceedings above described, qua notification; but there is plenty of
immediate work in the way of disinfection, and in the inculcation of the proper steps to be taken
for preventing the spread of disease in infected houses, in which deaths from consumption
have occurred. Second only in importance to destruction of sputum, and disinfection, comes the
cleansing of rooms, &c.; and, as I pointed out in the last report for 1901, it may turn out that in
order to make the new movement a success the Council will have to take steps to this end,
through the agency of an official staff of leaners and scrubbers, as at Manchester and Brighton,
among other places.
Sanatoria.—It unfortunately happens that the consumptives met with in workhouse infirmaries
are mostly in the third stage of the malady, being thus practically incurable; and when
admission is sought at an earlier and more hopeful stage of the disease, difficulty is experienced
in getting the sufferers to stay long enough to derive material advantage from treatment. The
respectable man, as breadwinner, feels it his duty, when "better," (and how hopeful the consumptive
person is!), to go out and earn a subsistence for those dependent on him. Moreover, he
regards the workhouse infirmary as a place of "relief" in more than the medical sense of the
expression, and its associations as not of the happiest. All this points to the superior advantages
of Sanatoria in the country.* Such places would be looked upon as hospitals for the cure of the
disease, and sufferers in the early stages, entering them with the hope of being cured, would
probably remain long enough to secure permanent improvement to health.
* In this connection it may be mentioned that the Brompton Hospital is about to establish a Country Branch and
Convalescent Home, with one hundred beds, at Heather6ide, near Bagshot, in which the open-air treatment will be adopted.
It has been stated that the result of this treatment in the South Wing of the present hospital has been most encouraging.
Other hospitals, of greater or less importance, have been or are about to be established up and down the country—notably one
for which a large sum of money has been placed by a private gentleman at the disposal of H.M. the King.