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79
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
Consumption (with other forms of tuberculosis) causes one death in every
eight in this country. Of all deaths in the United Kingdom between the ages
of twenty-five and thirty-five nearly one half are due to consumption.
It gives rise to a vast amount of suffering and permanent ill-health. It is
calculated that in Great Britain at the present moment at least a quarter of a
million persons are suffering from it.
The disease is preventible.
Its predisposing cause is a low state of health, or it may be induced by overcrowding;
ill-ventilated, dirty, dark rooms; bad or insufficient food; intemperance;
and infectious fevers, or other illnesses.
Consumption is, however, contracted by taking into the system, chiefly by
inhalation, the germ or microbe of the disease. This germ is contained in the
dust particles of the dried spit of the consumptive, and in the minute droplets
sprayed into the atmosphere by the consumptive in coughing.
These germs are derived from persons suffering from consumption, or some
other form of tuberculosis. They are found in vast numbers in the phlegm,
spit, or expectoration of a consumptive person.
In a moist state this expectoration does not infect the air, excepting by the
sprayed droplets in coughing, but if allowed to dry and become dust it is exceedingly
dangerous, and is then a means by which the disease is spread from
person to person.
The best place for a consumptive is a sanatorium. If this be impracticable
he must sleep in a separate bed-room.
Precautions.—It is essential for the protection of their own families, and to
prevent the spread of the disease among the general public, that the following
.simple precautions be taken by consumptive persons:—
The consumptive person must not expectorate about the house, nor on
the floor of any cab, omnibus, tram-car, railway carriage, or other conveyance.
Spitting about the streets, or in any public buildings (churches,
schools, theatres, railway stations, &c.), is a dangerous as well as a filthy
habit.
The consumptive person must not expectorate anywhere except into a
spittoon kept for the purpose, and containing a little water, or into sawdust
or jjeat.
When out of doors, a small, wide-mouthed bottle with a well-filling
cork, or a pocket spittoon, which may be obtained from any chemist,
should be used.
The expectoration must be washed into a drain or buried in the earth
or burned.
The cup or spittoon must then be kept in boiling water for ten
minutes before being thoroughly cleaned.