404 PRACTICAL HYGIENE 



4. By infectious material associated with houses or 

 rooms in which consumptives have lived. 



These methods of spreading consumption suggest the 

 necessity for the greatest care, on the part of both the 

 patient and those having him in charge. 1 The material 

 coughed up from the lungs and throat should be collected 

 on cloths or paper handkerchiefs and afterwards burned. 

 The house where a consumptive has lived should be dis- 

 infected, repapered or calcimined, and thoroughly cleaned 

 before it is again occupied. The" inside woodwork should 

 also be repainted. The approaches to the house where 

 the patient may have expectorated should be disinfected 

 and cleaned. Since the germs are able to live in the soil, 

 fresh lime or wood ashes should be spread around the 

 doorsteps and along the walks. 



Typhoid Fever, one of our most dangerous diseases, is 

 caused by germs (bacteria) that enter the body through 

 the food canal. They attack certain glands in the walls 

 of the small intestine, where they produce toxins that pass 

 with the germs to all parts of the body. Typhoid fever 

 germs spread from those having the disease to others, 

 chiefly through the discharges from the bowels and the 

 kidneys. The germs contained in these, if not destroyed 

 by disinfectants, find their way into the soil, or into sewage, 

 where they may be picked up by water and widely dis- 

 tributed. Finding suitable places, such as those containing 

 decaying material, the germs may rapidly increase in num- 

 ber, and from these sources find their way into the bodies of 

 new victims. They are likely, on account of manures, to 

 get on vegetables ; on account of uncleanly methods of milk- 

 ing, to get into the milk supply; and from sewerage out- 



1 For further information on the care of consumptives, consult Huber's Con- 

 sumption and Civilization. 



