WHAT WE BREATHE 63 



precautions to be taken, coupled with a few of the 

 more cogent facts concerning consumption and its 

 distribution, should be drawn up and circulated 

 amongst all engaged in the dairy industry? The 

 National Health Society has done much for the 

 prevention of disease by disseminating, through 

 leaflets and lectures, simple facts concerning health 

 and its preservation ; might it not make itself the 

 vehicle for the transmission of some such code 

 which, whilst instructing, should impress upon its 

 readers the responsibility which rests upon each 

 and every individual member of society, by his or 

 her own personal efforts, to assist in the great task 

 of combating disease ? 



A fact which urgently needs the widest recog- 

 nition is the possible dissemination of disease 

 germs by individuals not themselves suffering from 

 the disease in question, but who have resided in 

 the immediate surroundings of infected persons. 



Dr. Koch was the first to call attention to this 

 danger when he discovered, during the Hamburg 

 cholera epidemic, that perfectly healthy persons 

 were infected with cholera vibrios, and were the 

 unconscious means of spreading the disease. Still 

 more recently it has been found that true typhoid 

 germs may similarly be present in persons not 

 suffering from typhoid fever but sharing the same 

 living-rooms. 



