THE ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



83 



duced very rapidly in some of our larger 

 cities. New Haven and Philadelphia 

 have gotten further along than we have, 

 but in our own city we are reducing the 

 death rate now very rapidly from con- 

 sumption. 



There is another way that shows you 

 how it may be propagated. Here is a 

 consumptive. He is not able to go to 

 his work. I suppose he had to stay at 

 home and his wife perhaps had to go out 

 and work and he takes care of the little 

 children. Now, if you let that man be 

 careless and expectorate upon the floor 

 or in various parts of the room , and no 

 great care taken for the destruction of 

 the sputum, the little one is almost sure 

 to become contaminated with the dis- 

 ease. 



Now^ there is a picture that will give 

 you a little idea ofthe enormous numbers 

 of bacteria in the world. Those are little 

 particles of dust that you see here. This 

 little stick that you see here looks like a 

 long stick of wood. That is a little par- 

 ticle of dust that you see on the rays of 

 the lantern going to the screen. There 

 is another little piece of fibre of wood, 

 and up there is another little particle of 

 sand. Here in the center of that is a 

 little fibre of sand. Now these were de- 

 veloped, that is, they were put under 

 proper conditions for the development of 

 bacteria, and after four or five days they 

 were picked up and magnified, and around 

 this little particle of sand you see this 

 great colony of bacteria had formed. Four 

 different colonies have formed on this 

 little fibre of wood, one colony here, one 

 here, one here and one there, and on this 

 little fibre four others had formed, all 

 different kinds of bacteria, had formed 

 upon that little piece of wood, that is any 

 ordinary dust. It is fortunate for hu- 

 manity that most kind of bacteria have no 

 aflSnity for the human being; that is, they 

 become destroyed if you breathe them in; 



but, of course, some of them do not. We 

 have bacteria for consumption, bacteria 

 for typhoid, for typhus, for cholera and a 

 good many other diseases; but for most 

 bacteria, the human body has no affinity, 

 so that they are almost inert in most in- 

 stances. 



Now, there is a picture showing you — ■ 

 and I tried to tell you a little while ago 

 that consumption was not inherited ; it 

 is infectious or contagious. To prove 

 that to you I will show you some sec- 

 tions in one of the wards in Philadel- 

 phia. Wherever you see those black 

 spots they are consumptive centres; they 

 are centres for consumption or tubercu- 

 losis. Just see how it thrives ! Here is 

 a location where there is consumption. 

 Here is a location where there is none. 

 There is another. Down here a whole 

 block with only one centre of consump- 

 tion in it. But look up here how it runs 

 along, and you can see that it creeps 

 from one place towards another, and that 

 these buildings have become contami- 

 nated ; and you can tell consumptive 

 centres in various parts of the city, and 

 it will only be a year or two now when 

 you can tell where consumption has been 

 epidemic, where it has been going on for 

 years in certain places- And now you 

 may not know it, but we are obliged to 

 report to the Board of Health all cases of 

 consumption after death, and after death 

 the Board of Health go to the tenement 

 house or wherever a death has taken 

 place, and they paste a notice on the 

 doors of those rooms, saying, "These 

 apartments are not fit to be occupied un- 

 til the landlord has complied with the 

 requirements of the law and has put 

 them in proper renovation by destroying 

 all germs." Now, that is done in this 

 city to-day. 



There is a picture of the tubercle bacil- 

 li — a picture of the bacilli of tuberculo- 

 sis. Now, some countries have gone 



