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69
APPENDIX.
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST CONSUMPTION
(i.e., Tuberculosis of the Lungs).
Although some individuals are especially prone to consumption every one is
liable to fall a victim to it. Most people have a natural power of resistance to
the disease and it is in the power of everyone to increase this resistance by
leading healthy, temperate lives.
Consumption is, to a large extent, a preventable disease. It mostly prevails
in damp, dirty, ill-ventilated, over-crowded and badly-lighted houses and
workshops. Neglected colds, intemperance, unwholesome and insufficient food,
also specially favour the appearance of the disease.
Consumption is caused by a germ or microbe derived from some person or
animal already suffering from the disease. The germ gets into the air, food or
drink, and thus gets into the lungs or bowels of human beings.
Where the spit of a consumptive person is allowed to become dry, the germ
gets lifted up as invisible dust into the air, thereby reaching the lungs of others.
Such spit should, therefore, never be allowed to get dry. For that reason it
should not be spat on the floors of a house or public conveyance or into a
handkerchief, but either into pieces of rag or paper, which should be at once
burned, or into a spittoon or small portable spit bottle containing water. The
spittoon or bottle should be carefully emptied down the w.c. every morning and
evening, then scalded and recharged with fresh water.
When a consumptive person coughs, tiny invisible particles, which may
contain the germ, are thrown out into the air. The danger thereby involved can
be avoided by coughing into a handkerchief, which should be wrung out of
disinfectant from time to time so as to keep it damp; and the handkerchief
should be disinfected in boiling water after 24 hours.
A consumptive person, in addition to taking these precautions, should not
be allowed to inhale the dust of the rooms in which he sleeps or works. For his
sake, therefore, as well as in the interest of others, the dust should be frequently
collected with damp dusters, so as not to raise it into the air, and for the same
reason tea leaves or damp sawdust should be sprinkled on the floor before
sweeping. The dusters should be subsequently boiled and the sawdust and tea
leaves burned.
It is dangerous to keep the milk and other food intended for other members
of the family in a room occupied by a consumptive person unless it is well
covered over so as to protect it from possible infection.