CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 269 



thoroughly identified and studied, Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 

 13 and 14. (Photographs of different forms of bacteria.) 



How may these disease-producing germs be conveyed 

 from the sick to the well, or in other words, how may a 

 person sick with a contagious disease communicate such 

 disease to another. Take for example, diphtheria, and I 

 select this disease because it is one with which we arc all 

 more or less familiar. How may a child sick with diphthe- 

 ria give it to other children ? I say children because we all 

 know they arc much more liable to this disease than adults, 

 although the latter do have it. In this disease the germs 

 producing it, as I have already said, fix themselves usually 

 in the throat or nostrils, and there reproduce themselves. 

 Because the seat of the disease is in the throat or nostrils, 

 the secretions that come from the parts are tlie most danger- 

 ous, for they are swarming with the germs of the disease. 

 In a child suffering with diphtheria these secretions are 

 generally very profuse, and in spite of the greatest care 

 some of them will fall on the dress of the attendant, the 

 bedding, the floor and the furniture, and where no care is 

 used, as is often the case in the homes where the disease is 

 the most rife, these articles soon become covered with these 

 secretions, every drop of which contains millions upon mil- 

 lions of these disease-producing germs. 



These secretions are soon dried in the warm room, and by 

 the handling of the bedding and furniture, and the move- 

 ments about the room, thoy are worked up into a fine dust 

 that readily floats about in the air. Therefore, contact or 

 approximate contact as you would suppose between the sick 

 and the well, oflers the greatest danger of infection, so con- 

 tact with the clothing of the patient or attendant that has 

 been worn in the sick room is of the greatest danger. 

 Another very great danger of conveying these contagious 

 diseases is by means of the knives, forks, spoons and dishes 

 that have been used in the sick room. So the towels, cloths, 

 etc., that have been in the sick chamber, whether they have 

 been used or not, may be a fruitful source of contagion. 



AVe saw in the early part of the evening how readily these 

 minute forms of life float about in the air, and diphtheria 

 may be conveyed from one person to another in this way, 



