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16
No milk or other food should be kept in the sick room.
The floor must be frequently damped with disinfectant,
and the whole place kept as free from dust as possible.
Issued by the Public Health Committee.
Merton Urban District Council.
N.B.—The disinfectant was supplied by the Council, and
method of using it was explained. Sputum flasks
were also provided. Opportunity was taken to
impress on the relatives the necessity of early
advice being taken if any suspicious symptoms
occurred in any other inmate.
The prevention of Tuberculosis has of late years been
occupying the attention of the Medical Profession very much,
and since the germ discovered by Koch has been quite proved
to be the cause of the disease, more rational methods have
been employed for its prevention.
We are all of us liable to inhale or swallow the germes,
and no doubt we do so ait some time or other. Immunity
of those who do not fall victims is partly due to natural defensive
forces within the body, which literally wage war with the
invaders. The better the general condition of health, the greater
is the resistance, and it is more common than is thought by the
public that victory has lain with the human forces; for it is
not so very uncommon to find traces of the battlefield when
people have died from quite other diseases at a later date.
Clean sanitary houses, with their full provision for air, constructed
in such a way that sunlight can get into every room,
help considerably, as fresh air and sunlight can kill the germs,
and at the same time sfrengthen the body.