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So great, indeed, was the demand for these cards that in November last
the Committee considered it advisable they should be circulated by a general
house-to-house distribution.
This is now in progress, and will necessarily take some further time to
complete.
Such action, however, does not appear to have very marked influence in
dealing with offenders against decency and the laws of public health, and I
am of opinion that the time is come to deal with the question in a more
radical and stringent manner.
I have therefore collected some information as to legislation on this subject
in our own and foreign countries.
New York.—It is forbidden to spit in trams and omnibuses under pain of
a fine of 500 dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, and
many persons have been already punished for the offence, special plain clothes
detectives being employed to deal with this habit.
Boston, U.S.A.— The Board of Health on the 23rd March, 1899, issued a
Regulation as follows:—
"The Board of Health hereby adjudges that the deposit of sputum in
"public places is a nuisance, source of filth, and cause of sickness, and
" hereby orders that spitting upon the floor, platform or steps of any railroad
"or railway station, car, public building, hall, church, theatre, market or
"any sidewalk immediately connected with said public places, be, and
"hereby is prohibited.''
I am indebted to the Hon. H. K. Evans, Consul-General for the United
States of America, for the following information concerning regulations on the
subject in the United States, compiled by Surgeon-General Maine, of
Washington, from Dr. C. V. Chaplin's work on Municipal Sanitation in that
country:
" SPITTING.
"The first anti-spitting law in the United States was adopted 12 May, 1896,
"in New York City, at the suggestion of Drs. Biggs and Prudden.1
"It was adopted for the purpose of diminishing the spread of tuber"culosis.
It had been shown tubercle bacilli are thrown off in large
"numbers in the sputum of many cases of phthisis, and that this sputum
"when it becomes dry on the floor or sidewalk would be readily
"pulverized and carried about by air currents, and might on reaching
"the air passages of those who breathed this dust-laden air, cause the
"disease in them. This danger was believed to be a very real one, and
1New York City, Report of Board of Health (1896), p. 29.