WHAT WE BREATHE 43 



not too much to demand that vigorous measures 

 should be taken by the legislature to cope with 

 what is now regarded as one of the most fruitful 

 means of spreading consumption. We know that 

 in some of the states of America public opinion 

 has permitted the enactment of laws penalising 

 this practice. Local rules to the same effect exist 

 in our Australian colonies. On the Continent the 

 trend of public opinion is evident by the pro- 

 hibition found in the railway carriages and the 

 notices to that effect conspicuously posted in 

 public places. In this country public opinion 

 moves so slowly that we are not yet ripe for 

 any such strong step, and so far one of the few 

 attempts at official activity in this respect is to 

 be found in a circular issued by the Local Govern- 

 ment Board of Ireland to the various local authori- 

 ties stating that " tuberculous sputum is the 

 main agent for the conveyance of the virus of 

 tuberculosis from man to man, and that indis- 

 criminate spitting should therefore be suppressed." 

 The public exhibition of notices calling attention 

 to the danger accruing from expectoration in 

 public resorts is, as already pointed out, one 

 means of educating the people, and it has been 

 stated that such a notice is posted in every beer- 

 house in Manchester. The question has also been 

 raised of the inspection of beerhouses and the 



