PROPHYLAXIS. 593 



droplets of sputum and saliva which are expelled. 

 The ordinances and rules which prohibit expecto- 

 ration in street cars and other public places should 

 be enforced. When bacilli are discharged in the 

 urine and feces or in the pus of tuberculous ab- 

 scesses and sinuses, these secretions should be dis- 

 infected by suitable means (chlorid of lime). 

 Healthy persons should come in contact with the 

 tuberculous as little as possible, and the eating 

 utensils of the latter should be used by no one else. 



The floor of a room which is inhabited by a tuber- 

 culous person should always be moistened before it 

 is swept, in order to avoid stirring up the dust. 

 After the death or removal of a patient, the entire 

 surface of the room and all its contents should be 

 thoroughly disinfected by appropriate means. The 

 proper disinfection of the premises which were 

 once occupied by a consumptive should be a legal 

 requirement, just as similar procedures are de- 

 manded in the case of smallpox and some other 

 contagious diseases. 



The special hospital in which the indigent tuber- 

 culous may be properly cared for and isolated has 

 been a powerful factor in causing the decrease of 

 tuberculosis which has been noted in many coun- 

 tries. . The removal of a patient to such an institu- 

 tion means the elimination of an infected focus 

 from the community. 



Cold-blooded animals (fish, amphibians, rep- 

 tiles), and most birds are not highly susceptible to immunity. 

 tuberculosis, although special varieties of the ba- 

 cillus cause the disease in certain of them under 

 natural conditions. When tubercle bacilli are in- 

 jected into the circulation of birds, they may re- 

 main in the blood and organs for months, produc- 



