222 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [June 



A Study of the Infectiousness of the Dust in the Adiron- 

 dack Cottage Sanitarium. — Irwin H Hance {^Canadian 

 Practitioner, January, 1896) g-ives a very interesting- resume 

 of the literature bearing- upon the infectious character of 

 tuberculosis, and relates some instructive experiments 

 uponthe subject. These were done at the request and 

 under the supervision of Dr. Trudeau, at the Saranac 

 Laboratory, and consisted of inoculations, into the subcut- 

 aneous tissues of g-uinea-pig"s, of suspension of dust from 

 the various build ing-s and cottag-es of the Sanitarium. A 

 total of eig-hty-one inoculations was made, all but eig-ht of 

 which g-ave a neg-ative result. Three of the animals died 

 of rapid acute infections; the remaining- five fatal cases 

 were infected with tuberculosis. Theyall occured among- 

 the ten animals which were inoculated with dust from the 

 "Red Cottag-e," which had been occupied by the sickest 

 patients and by one who was notoriously careless as to 

 spitting- about the cottage. 



The author seems justified in concluding- that the free- 

 dom from infectious material of the dust from sixteen out 

 of seventeen building-s tested is due to strict measures in 

 disposing- of sputum. The patientsare carefully instructed 

 concerning- the disposal of their sputum, and close super- 

 vision of them is maintained. The pasteboard cuspidors 

 are burned daily, as are the Japanese napkins as soon as 

 possible after using-. Paper napkins are used in the infir- 

 mary in hemorrhag-e cases or where patients are too feeble 

 to g-et up on their elbows so as to use a cuspidor. These 

 are used but once, then placed in a pasteboard receptacle 

 and soon after burned. In addition to these measures, 

 the author insists upon g-eneral g-ood hyg-iene, etc. These 

 results show that building-s may be occupied by consump- 

 tives for years and still be uncontaminated by infectious 

 material if the discharg-e of bacilli from the patient be pro- 

 perly cared for. 



Defective Sanitation in Italy. — According- to Professor 

 Bodio, of 8,254 communities in Italy, 1,454 have no supply 

 of pure water, and 4,877 no reg-ular sewag-e system. 



