3 o4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or open wounds, or the shock occasioned by injury, or depressing emo- 

 tions generalty, may predispose. There are many trades which may 

 stand in a causative relation to tuberculosis. In the excellent book 

 entitled 'Dangerous Trades' there are nearly sixty such occupations 

 specifically considered. 



It were impossible even to mention all conditions which might pre- 

 dispose to consumption. For we are told that living itself is but the 

 body's response to environmental stimuli, either physical or chemical 

 in character; and such are about as numerous as there are external 

 phenomena. For my part, I would reserve the opinion that the whole 

 of life is by no means comprehended in this tenet; still it is valid as 

 denoting the innumerable agencies, which may make the organism 

 receptive to tubercular infection. 



May we then hope to fight tuberculosis with any measure of suc- 

 cess? Yes, indeed. To do so, two objects must be kept in view: We 

 must destroy the bacillus; and we must render the organism of the 

 individual resistant to infection. The disposition of the tubercle 

 bacillus is theoretically extremely simple. Tuberculosis as an infec- 

 tious disease is totally unlike certain others, as, for instance, diphtheria 

 or scarlet fever. One can not be sure, after having been half an hour 

 in the same room with a diphtheria patient, that he will not contract 

 the disease. If, however, certain very elementary precautions are 

 taken, one may live with a consumptive for months or years without 

 jeopardizing his health. It has been truly said that there is no place 

 where one is less likely to contract consumption than in a scientifically 

 conducted sanitarium for consumptives. For instance, all the dust in 

 one of Dr. Trudeau's cottages at Saranac Lake was gathered together, 

 and a culture made from it; and this culture, when injected into a 

 guinea pig, was not sufficient to give this little creature tuberculosis. 

 And we may observe, in passing, that consumptives, who have been 

 cured in such institutions, go out as well-trained medical missionaries, 

 teaching others the habits of sanitation and cleanliness they have accus- 

 tomed themselves to. Nor is any other community likely to be as 

 healthy as one in which such a sanitarium is situated. 



The sputum of the consumptive must be destroyed; and our gov- 

 ernment inspectors must see to it that no tuberculous meat and milk 

 gets into our markets. These are practically the only sources of 

 tubercular infection we need fear, and if these things were thoroughly 

 attended to, there would be no danger of infection. 



There are many, indeed, who have in this direction an unnecessary 

 and not altogether dignified dread. For instance, some time ago a 

 young woman left New York City for the west. She was of splendid 

 intellectual capacity, amiable, gentlewomanly and withal of an ex- 

 quisitely sensitive nature. She had little means; and, in order to 



