CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMPTIVES. 337 



reported cases are visited and instructed by tlie health officers. 

 When an apartment has been vacated by a consumptive the fol- 

 lowing notice is posted : 



NOTICE. 



Consumption is a communicable disease. This apartment has been 

 occupied by a consumptive, and may have thus become infected. It must 

 not be occupied by persons other than those residing here until an order 

 from the Board of Health, directing that it be cleaned and renovated, has 

 been complied with. 



Name of occupant 



Floor No St 



This notice must not be removed until the order of the Board of Health 

 has been complied with. 



The directions for cleaning and renovating require that calci- 

 mined or whitewashed walls and ceilings be washed with a solu- 

 tion of washing soda (one half pound to three gallons of water), 

 and then calcimined or whitewashed afresh ; that papered walls 

 and ceilings be washed with the same solution and repapered ; 

 and that the woodwork be similarly washed and then repainted. 

 Cleansing and renovating are aimed at rather than disinfection. 

 These measures can be taken as an example of the method of 

 dealing with tubercular lung disease in every large city, and, in 

 fact, throughout nearly the whole country. 



The reason for this new departure is to be found in the round- 

 ing out of the evidence of the contagious nature of consumption, 

 by the discovery of the living agent whose presence and growth 

 constitute the very essence of the disease, and the transfer of 

 which from the sick to the well causes its spread. This is the 

 microscopic, rod-shaped, vegetable organism named the tubercle 

 bacillus. It was discovered by Dr. Koch, of Berlin, in 1882, and 

 much of the mystery which had previously shrouded the disease 

 was thereupon cleared up ; for, although consumption is a dis- 

 ease which has been recognized during the whole period covered 

 by history, no adequate explanation of its nature was offered 

 until recent times. Previous to this century, it was thought that 

 the destruction of the lungs was due to simple inflammation and 

 ulceration. Then Laennec, a French physician, who invented the 

 stethoscope, set forth the view that the small, pearl-like bodies 

 with which the lungs were found studded constituted the sole 

 cause. He called these bodies tubercles, and thus the disease 

 came to be spoken of as tuberculosis. 



Laennec's view was not accepted without opposition, and, 

 until Koch's discovery set the matter at rest, many claimed that 

 there were two or more kinds of consumption. In 18G7, Villemin, 

 also a Frenchman, demonstrated the possibility of producing the 

 disease in certain animals by inoculating them with tuberculous 



