172 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



little more care was taken, but the next thing another member of 

 the family, and then another, takes that "grippy cold," until the 

 whole family has it; and then, perhaps, a neighbor comes in, and 

 goes home with it. And it all goes back to that little piece of linen, 

 called a handkerchief, that was dropped on the floor, and the cold 

 that was not properly cared for in the first place. I wish we could 

 learn to use our old muslins, when there is a slight cold, and then 

 burn them before they are dried. If we must use handkerchiefs, they 

 should be put in a basin by themselves with some disinfectant, and 

 then brought to a boil before they are put in with the wash ; then 

 perhaps you may safely wash them, but T wish you would just use old 

 muslins and then burn them. 



There is an epidemic of typhoid fever in town, and the milk has 

 been tested, and the water has been tested, and they cannot see where 

 it comes from. Tomorrow there is a new case, and the next day 

 another, and then another, until the town is full of it, and they can- 

 not locate the source. Finally, one day some one says, "I wonder 

 if it could be the dish-cloth ?" And do you know, there are times 

 when there may be danger in that little dish-cloth? It is only a 

 little thing, and it is so easy, to put that dish cloth on and boil it out 

 regularly; put it on in cold water and bring it to a boil, and the 

 danger of that little dish-cloth will be overcome, and we can keep our 

 people well and wholesome. There are sources from which typhoid 

 may come into the home aside from the milk and the water. You 

 know there a number of kickers against vaccination for small-pox, I 

 suppose the people in this room are divided on the subject, but as 

 for me, I will take the risk of vaccination rather than run the risk 

 of taking small-pox. And so today they are successfully vaccinat- 

 ing against typhoid. In the United States army, where they have 

 been vaccinating for typhoid, they now have three cases whore they 

 formerly had eighty thousand in a given time. 



It was just a little tiny pain somewhere in the chest. The physician 

 said "just a little touch of pleurisy; you will soon be all right." But 

 the resiilt was that the young woman, just ready for her life work, 

 Avhich included four years in a Medical College, during the summer 

 in the hospital for experience got this little tiny pain, and lost sev- 

 eral years out of her life's work and was barely able to pull through 

 her examinations; and then comes the news that she has tuberculosis. 

 Now she is still alive, but she walks up and down the sanitarium, and 

 wanders up and down the State from one place to another, to find 

 relief where there is none. Friends, if they said "pleurisy" to me — 

 if they say "pleurisy" to you — do you kuow what it means? It 

 means that in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, it comes from 

 tubercular inflammation? I did not mean to talk tuberculosis when 

 I came up here, but it has been brought home to me the last two 

 weeks. Every mail brings news to some one that some dear one is 

 dead. Today, coming up on the train, I watched a young man — T 

 dont know who — but I dont think he has very long to live, and his 

 sister or his wife — I dont know which — who was with him. She went 

 to the end of the train to take a drink, using the same cup from which 

 she had just given him a drink. What can be the result? You 

 should think that all that has been printed and taught on the sub- 

 ject would bring it home to them, but it does not. I feel very much 

 as one whom you all know said "We know just a little better than we 



