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21
Hygienic conditions have such an enormous influence in
the reduction of these tubercular diseases, that the death-rate
from phthisis affords a rough test of the extent to which
insanitary conditions prevail.
For the prevention of consumption and allied diseases it
is necessary that there should he—
Good ventilation of houses and workshops, and
their sanitary construction and arrangement so as to
secure fresh air, good light, and dry walls.
No over-crowding.
Proper drainage of the soil.
Inspection of cowsheds, dairies, and cows, so as to
insure good milk, free from the germs of tuberculosis.
Inspection of animals intended for food, and
adequate supervision of them at the time of slaughter.
Healthy persons should not sleep in the same
room with a phthisical person.
Disinfection of the sputum of phthisical patients,
infected articles and rooms.
An eminent pathologist, Professor Joseph Coates, states
"that of the total deaths under ten years of age amongst the
mass of the people about a third are due to tuberculosis,'' and
that the usual seat of disease at that age points to food as the
medium of infection.