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and disinfectant should be used to spit in, so that the matter may
not dry, and it should be emptied in the closet (not into the ashpit,
or upon the footwalk or the roadway), and carefully washed afterwards
with boiling water. If the consumptive prefers to use soft
paper, linen or calico cloths or handkerchiefs to spit in, they should
be thrown upon the fire and burnt forthwith. He should take
care that his hands, face, and clothing do not become soiled with
the matter coughed up. He should never swallow the expectoration :
it is dangerous. When coughing he should always cover the mouth
with the hand and turn the head aside.
4.—A consumptive should sleep alone; the windows should
always be wide open, except when dressing or undressing. The
bedclothing and personal clothing should be boiled and washed
separately from the clothing of other people.
5.—Tubercle bacilli are not only the cause of ordinary consumption
of the lungs, but they may also give rise to consumption
of the bowels and other parts of the body, and therefore milk and
other uncooked food should be carefully protected from the tubercle
bacilli. If such food be kept in a place to which a consumptive
patient of careless habits has access and who may spit upon the
floor, the dry particles of the matter spat up may blow about with
dust and find access to milk and other food, and in this way contaminate
it. Mothers who are consumptive should not suckle their
children.
6.—Cows suffer from consumption, and the milk from consumptive
cows is liable to contain the tubercle bacilli. Milk had
better be boiled for a few seconds unless the consumer is sure that
it comes from a healthy cow, and that it has not been exposed to
danger of contamination afterwards. These precautions should
be specially observed in the case of children.
7.—Consumption is a disease from which large numbers of
patients recover if the rooms they occupy are always kept thoroughly
well ventilated, clean, and free from dust.
8.—Sunshine and fresh air destroy tubercle bacilli, and are the
principal curative agents; the more sunshine and fresh air the
consumptive patient gets, the more likely he is to recover.