42 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



That cobwebs readily catch dust is familiar to 

 everyone who has the mortification of seeing 

 them adorn ceilings and corners ; that they also 

 arrest bacteria follows as a natural consequence 

 of the presence of dust, and hence these delicate 

 filaments may become veritable bacterial store- 

 houses, more especially as it is usually in the 

 dark and remote corners that they best succeed 

 in eluding the vigilance of the domestic eye, and 

 are thus also out of reach of the lethal action of 

 sunbeams ; and hence their unwelcome lodgers 

 may manage to maintain a very comfortable 

 existence over long periods of time. 



That the bacillus of consumption should have 

 been very frequently found in dust by different 

 investigators is hardly surprising when it is realised 

 that the sputum of phthisical persons may contain 

 the tubercle germ in large numbers, and that until 

 recently no efforts have been made in this country 

 to suppress that highly objectionable and most 

 reprehensible practice of indiscriminate expectora- 

 tion. Considering that the certified deaths from 

 phthisis in 1901, in England and Wales only, 

 reached the enormous total of 42,408, and 

 bearing in mind the hardy character of the 

 bacillus tuberculosis when present in sputum, it 

 having been found alive in the latter even when 

 kept in a dry condition after ten months, it is 



