XVIl] 



BACTERIOLOGY, ANTISEPTICS AND DISEASE 



209 



I do not believe in taking much medicine ; 

 often medicine is better left alone. When one is 

 really sick it is better to send for the doctor — 

 provided he is one in vi^hom the patient has 

 faith. If he loses faith in his doctor he had 

 better go to another at once. 



I have been more than surprised at the in- 

 formation I have received from many sanatoria 

 relating to the insanitary precautions taken by the 

 nurses, doctors, and attendants in these places. 

 Several people who have been to sanatoria have 

 told me of instances that I could hardly believe. 

 Highly undesirable conditions exist in many 

 cases, such as patients who are only slightly 

 consumptive, or who are suspects, having to 

 use the same drinking utensils as bad cases, and 

 having to sit next to them at meals, or to sleep 

 in the same room, etc. 



817. Disease germs are not, as some suppose, 

 found hanging about everywhere, waiting to 

 attack human beings and animals. As stated in 

 the early part of this chapter, their existence 

 is a mistake, and they only occur in dangerous 

 quantities where they have been left by infected 

 patients. It is a deplorable fact that lower types 

 of human beings, as well as many educated 

 people, do not take any precaution to guard 

 against other persons contracting their diseases. 

 Their carelessness is most indiscreet. It is 

 always advisable to be clean in one's habits, to 

 take ordinary precautions against coming in 

 contact with disease. Certain precautions can 

 always be observed. It is dangerous to rub one's 

 hands over dirty seats in public waiting-rooms, 

 etc., and then to lick one's fingers. It is not wise 

 to lick stamps or envelopes that have been left 

 lying about in public places, especially as gum 

 is a good medium for the growth of bacteria. 

 The gum used on stamps should be antiseptic. 



Speaking-tubes are most insanitary, especially 

 as it is generally necessary to blow into the tube 

 at one end. Public telephones are fairly safe as 

 long as the speaker does not put his mouth into 

 the mouthpiece, which, by the way, telephone 

 companies ask you to do. If a consumptive has 

 been blowing small particles of sputum into the 

 mouthpiece and afterwards one speaks as 

 directed, "close to the mouthpiece," one stands a 

 good chance of breathing in a good many germs. 



The German physician. Dr. Friedman, has 

 lately discovered a serum, produced from the 

 turtle, which he claims to be a cure for tuber- 

 culosis. Its chief use is supposed to be in cases 

 of surgical and not pulmonary tuberculosis. 



818. Most diseases are contracted from what 

 we eat, and not from what we breathe. Diseased 

 people, by dirty habits, leave infected matter 

 about, and this may reach our food. The baker 

 may handle bread with dirty hands. If the 

 butcher does this, however, there is less danger, 

 as the meat is made safe later by cooking. 



Dry breath, even from a consumptive, is 



2 B 



generally harmless. But consumption may be 

 caught by coming in contact with the drops of 

 moisture that fly from the mouth of the con- 

 sumptive while speaking or coughing. We do 

 not pick up a disease, as a rule, by walking 

 through an infected hospital, especially if we 

 breathe through the nose, but we are far more 

 likely to do so by handling the beds and door- 

 knobs and licking our hands afterwards, or by 

 getting our clothes infected while in contact with 

 infected clothes. Of course, in dirty towns 

 where there is a great deal of dust flying about 

 as compared with a modern hospital ward, there 

 is great danger of breathing in germs of disease. 

 For this reason doctors and nurses who attend 

 plague districts in China, etc., always wear anti- 

 septic shields, which are absolutely germ-proof, 

 over the mouth and nose. 



819. Dirty water should not be drunk, and 

 food should under no circumstances be left ex- 

 posed to flies, which are great propagators of 

 disease. Fly screens should be used everywhere, 

 especially in the kitchen, dining-room, and 

 closet. (See Chapter XII.) One's hands should 

 always be washed before a meal and before 

 attending to food, as when cooking. Money 

 should never be held in the mouth, and the prac- 

 tice of licking the finger while counting dirty 

 bank notes is dangerous. Finger sponges, as 

 used by bank clerks, should be soaked in a 

 solution of corrosive sublimate (1 to 1,000), be- 

 cause if they are soaked in ordinary water the 

 sponges soon become hives of germs. 



As most tuberculosis in man is not that con- 

 tracted through the lungs, but through what we 

 eat, and in great part through milk, all milk 

 should, by law, be sterilised. Consumption — 

 i.e. tuberculosis of the lungs — is seldom con- 

 tracted from cow's milk, but most surgical tuber- 

 culosis is. The number of cows that have con- 

 sumption is enormous, the reason being that the 

 cow is an abnormal animal which has developed 

 into a milk-producing machine, and nearly all 

 its vitality is used up in working this machine, 

 and therefore it cannot easily resist disease 

 germs. 



Milk is a very good bacterial incubator. It 

 should never be left uncovered and exposed to 

 the air. Milk that has been boiled will become 

 contaminated with bacteria more quickly than 

 that which has not, because the friendly germs 

 have been also destroyed. 



820. Dog fanciers are very careless in the 

 way they allow their pets to lick them on the 

 face and to dip their noses into water-jugs from 

 which they will drink themselves. This is ex- 

 tremely dangerous, because a dog will dip its 

 nose into any filth that it may come in contact 

 with. A horse, on the contrary, will not. 



Cats are very liable to tuberculosis, so strange 

 cats should not be kissed or allowed to lick one's 

 hands. 



