THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 75 



blood, and for this and other reasons they are 

 apt to become friable and break down, and 

 then little particles of them are apt to be 

 coughed up and discharged in the sputum. 

 But this broken-down material frequently con- 

 tains large numbers of living tubercle bacilli. 

 Now, if the material which consumptive per- 

 sons cough up and spit out were always de- 

 stroyed at once by being burned or received 

 into a dish of carbolic acid or some other effi- 

 cient disinfectant or germicide, one of the 

 greatest dangers of the spread of the disease 

 would be removed. But unfortunately this is 

 in fact very rarely done. Thousands of con- 

 sumptives are walking about the streets of our 

 large towns or visiting places of assembly, who 

 discharge the infectious material coughed up 

 from the lungs upon the pavements or floors. 

 This dries, and shortly is ground up, and takes 

 its place among the rest of the floating du^t of 

 the air. 



Essentially the same thing takes place in 

 rooms in which consumptives are confined if 

 intelligent precautions are not taken to destroy 

 or convey away the discharged material. It 



