London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hornsey 1910

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hornsey, Borough of]

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APPENDIX.
BOROUGH OF HORNSEY.
Advice to Persons Suffering
FROM
CONSUMPTION.
1. The safety of your family and of those with whom you
associate, as well as your own chances of recovery, depend on
your following these rules.
2. The material which you cough up and spit (the sputum)
contains the infection of consumption. If this is allowed to become
dry and to get broken into dust, such dust when inhaled
will produce the disease in others, and will also cause fresh
disease in your own lungs.
3. Great care must therefore be used, so that the sputum is
not discharged on any spot or into any substance on which it
can be dried and subsequently broken into dust.
4. It must, therefore, not be discharged on the floor or
walls of any living room, workshop, meeting room, theatre, or
other confined place in which people assemble. It must not be
discharged into a pocket handkerchief carried in the usual manner,
sinoe it readily dries in such a situation, so that not only are the
clothes infected, but, when the pocket handkerchief is again used,
a cloud of infective dust is scattered around you.
5. There are various ways in which this danger may be
avoided.
At home you should spit into a piece of paper or clean rag,
carefully clean your mouth with it, and then throw the soiled rag
or paper on the back of the fire.