38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to wards occupied also by consumptives. Sucli instances are more 

 often due to lack of funds than to a failure to appreciate the 

 danger. 



The idea is apparently widely entertained that sidewalks and 

 the floors of public conveyances and buildings are a sort of ever- 

 ready cuspidor. The habit of ubiquitous expectoration always 

 disgusting and unnecessary in health becomes dangerous when 

 practiced by consumptives. Sweeping trains catch a surprising 

 amount of filth, and tubercle bacilli as well as other germs have 

 been found in the skirts of ladies' dresses, whence they may be 

 introduced into houses. How often do we see a consumptive 

 shivering over a register and dropping the scourings of the cavi- 

 ties in his lungs down the hot-air pipe, to be dried and dissemi- 

 nated throughout the building ! An apparatus, differing only in 

 detail from the ordinary register, is used in laboratories for the 

 experimental inoculation of guinea-pigs with tuberculosis. 



On the other hand, the consumptive must not swallow the 

 infectious material raised from the lungs, for, by so doing, he 

 might set up tubercular inflammation of the stomach and intes- 

 tine. The expectoration should take place into a cup that can be 

 readily disinfected, or into a waterproof -paper receptacle that can 

 be burned. For disinfection, strong carbolic acid or a solution 

 of zinc chloride may be used, and the disinfectant must remain in 

 contact with the sputum for a long time; preferably the cup 

 should always contain some of the solution. For use away from 

 home, pocket cuspidors, or those fitted into canes, may be used. 

 The sputum should never be allowed to dry. Handkerchiefs, 

 sheets, etc., should be boiled for at least half an hour so resistant 

 are the tiny plants that cause the trouble apart from other 

 clothing. 



The communication of tuberculosis through cow's milk is at 

 length obtaining the attention that it deserves. Milk once in- 

 fected can not be made safe except by such treatment as will 

 seriously interfere with its nutritious qualities. Ordinary germs 

 of putrefaction may be killed by boiling, or even by letting the 

 milk stand in water previously brought to the boiling point, but 

 the only satisfactory dealing with tuberculous milk is destruction 

 at the hands of Government inspectors. 



So long as tubercular patients are allowed the freedom of so- 

 cial intercourse they must be held to the moral obligation of cer- 

 tain restrictions. Kissing has been called an elegant method of 

 transmitting disease. Consumptives must hold their affection in 

 check ; above all, they must not kiss little children, whose resist- 

 ance to disease is slight. They must recognize the necessity, if 

 they are not to be isolated from their surroundings, of isolating 

 from themselves children and those at all inclined to tubercular 



