TUBERCULOSIS OR CONSUMPTION 441 



up from his lungs. This should never be scattered, but 

 should be entirely destroyed. The best way is to burn it. 



By the modern method, consumption can be cured in any climate, 

 but a cold, dry climate is the best. To be cured, one does not, there- 

 fore, need to go away from a cold climate, as men formerly thought. 

 Neither is tuberculosis inherited, as men used to believe. The disease 

 can come only from the entrance of the bacilli into the lungs. But 

 people can inherit a weak resisting power, so that they need to use more 



Fig. 309. 

 Open Air Cottage of a Tuberculosis Sanitarium. 



care to avoid taking the disease than do the children of non-consump- 

 tive parents. One reason why members of the same family often get 

 the disease is that the germs are not destroyed with sufficient care, but 

 are allowed to spread through the house. They thus go from the sick 

 member of the family to those that are well. Sputum should not be 

 allowed to dry, and the dishes, linen, and clothing of the patient should 

 be thoroughly disinfected. 



Tuberculosis germs remain in houses, and one family after another, 

 by living in an infected house, may furnish victims for the disease. 

 When we plan to move into a house, we ought to be interested, not only 

 in the view and the wall paper, but also in the sanitary history of the 

 house, so that we may know what risk we are taking by living in it. 



