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51
mitted. A man may look at a dead body through a
pane of glass and see it, but not smell it. An
unvaccinated person may look at a Small Pox patient
through a window, and not take the disease. These
cases show that unless the poison of a diseased body
is conveyed by some proper medium no disease is
set up. Now the most common media for the
conveyance of the poison germs of disease are air,
water, and lood. There are some poison germs
which can only be communicated by contact, such is
the poison of hydrophobia and the forms of venereal
diseases, but of these nothing need be said here.
The air of the atmosphere is the great source of
the transmission of germ-poisons. Hence the necessity
of attending to its conditions where Zymotic
Diseases are present. I have already spoken of the
necessity of renewing the air of sick rooms and this
may be done to an extent to prevent all poisoning
from diseased bodies. Thus in our large hospitals
where there is plenty of space it is found that
contagious diseases do not spread from bed to bed
should a case of such disease accidently break out.
The current of air in a room will always carry the
germs of poison in the direction in which it is
moving, and clergymen and the occasional visitor
to the bed side of the sick should always approach
them from the side of the room from which the
current of air is setting.
It is found that damp states of the air are more
likely to convey poisons than dry states. At the
same time it should be recollected that during dry