596 Introduction to the Study of Science 



either self-control or control by others will be compulsory. 

 Control should begin with and by the infective persons, for 

 they can prevent their discharges from reaching others. But 

 where such control is not exercised, control by others for the 

 sake of the general welfare is inevitable. 



2. Practical preventive measures. There are several rather 

 simple precautions which every person should take, but which 

 are stated chiefly with reference to persons suffering from in- 

 fectious disease. 



a. Discharges through nose and mouth should be carefully 

 confined to cloths that may be disinfected or burned. The 

 same methods of disinfection should be used with all discharges 

 from the patient or with all materials and utensils used and 

 handled by him. Since it is not easy to know whether or not 

 one is a carrier of infection, it should be the habitual practice 

 of every person to take similar precautions. 



6. Persons known to be infective should not be permitted 

 to work in stores, markets, dairies, or restaurants, where food, 

 water, milk, or public utilities are handled. They should not 

 make use of public drinking or eating utensils, towels, books, 

 telephones, and so on. This may seem at first a personal hard- 

 ship, but it is certainly not justifiable to expose others to dis- 

 ease. 



c. Eventually it will be recognized as necessary to adopt 

 more vigorous measures in behalf of the public health. Strict 

 supervision of health should become commonplace. Probably 

 all infective individuals should be isolated for curative purposes, 

 as is now done in the case of such diseases as leprosy, smallpox, 

 typhus fever, and scarlet fever. This will insure the control 

 of all bodily discharges, with disinfection, and destruction of 

 disease germs. In such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia, 

 influenza, grippe, and colds, the danger of which is not now 

 sufficiently recognized, isolation will become the rule. By 

 thorough isolation of the patient, of nurses, and of all exposed 

 persons until danger has passed, infection can be definitely 



