BACTERIAL DISEASES 443 



float in the air for any great distance from the diseased person. 

 But danger lurks in handling articles infected by germs, 

 from eating infected food, or from drinking infected water. 



All dishes and utensils used by persons having contagious 

 or infectious diseases should be kept by themselves, washed 

 in boiling water, and not used by other people. All their 

 bedding and clothing should be thoroughly washed in some 

 disinfectant, boiled if possible, and hung for some time in 

 direct sunlight. Rooms should be disinfected before they 

 are used by other persons. In very contagious diseases 

 mattresses and materials which cannot be disinfected should 

 be burned. As all germ diseases are spread by sick people, 

 epidemics can be prevented if sufficient care is taken. 



So closely are people brought together in our towns and 

 cities that carelessness on the part of one may endanger 

 many, and it is particularly necessary that regulations be 

 enforced which shall protect society from the careless spread- 

 ing of disease. In some very virulent diseases, such as 

 smallpox or diphtheria, the patients ought to be kept to 

 themselves, quarantined, their rooms and everything about 

 them disinfected, and every precaution taken to prevent 

 people susceptible to the diseases from being exposed to the 

 germs. 



This cannot and ought not to be done in all cases of bac- 

 terial disease, since adequate protection can be given if 

 sufficient care is taken by the person affected. If tubercular 

 patients will carefully cover their mouths with cloths when 

 coughing or sneezing and see that the cloths are burned, 

 tubercular germs will cease to be a menace to society. Al- 

 though thousands are afflicted each year with tuberculosis, 

 largely through the carelessness of those having it, the disease 

 is readily preventable and curable. If the same precautions 



