424 APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY 



typhoid fever or the grippe, are also likely to take pneumonia if they 

 breathe foul or dusty air, or live in a room with any one who has a 

 bad cold. A common way of taking pneumonia is to breathe the foul 

 air of a hot, close room after becoming exhausted and chilled in stormy 

 weather. Pure air is the most essential thing in preventing pneumonia, 

 A pneumonia which is caused by the germs of tuberculosis is called 

 consumption (p. 389). 



736. Whooping cough. Whooping cough is due to a 

 kind of disease germ which is breathed into the nose and 

 throat. The toxins of the germs cause the sick person to 

 have short spells of coughing until he is out of breath. 

 Then he suddenly takes a breath so forcibly as to produce 

 a whooping noise. The disease is usually considered 

 harmless, and yet it often produces pneumonia and is the 

 cause of thousands of deaths each year. One who has 

 had the disease is usually immune to it for the rest of his 

 life. It seldom affects grown people, probably because 

 nearly everybody has it in childhood. It lasts from one to 

 three months, and may be given during the whole course 

 of the disease. 



Whooping cough may be caught by being in a room 

 with a person who has the disease, and yet its germs are 

 not long-lived, and are not likely to be carried on the cloth- 

 ing, or to remain alive in a room after the disease is at an 

 end. It may be prevented by keeping the sick away from 

 those who have not had the disease. Every person who 

 has it should remain away from school, and church, and 

 other meeting places. 



737. Inflamed wounds. Germs of disease may enter the 

 flesh through any wound in the skin. The disease which 

 they cause is often called a cold in the wound, or an in- 

 flamed wound, or erysipelas, or blood poisoning. It may 

 be prevented by covering all wounds with clean, antiseptic 



