DISTRIBUTION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 209 



seen that one of the housewife's duties is to protect her 

 food from their action. 



Very similar but more serious problems arise in the 

 household in connection with the distribution of disease 

 germs. If a disease is produced only by the development 

 of bacteria, of course it may be prevented if we can 

 discover some means of keeping the disease bacteria 

 from the body. In canning fruit the housewife tries to 

 prevent bacteria from reaching it. Can she not by a 

 similar principle protect her children from contagious 

 diseases .-' This problem is the one feature of contagious 

 diseases that belongs primarily to th^ housewife. The pre- 

 vention of the distribution of such diseases is a subject 

 which the physician can handle only indirectly, because 

 it depends upon conditions in the home which he can- 

 not control. The modern trained nurse may be able to 

 do this ; but in the majority of cases the whole problem 

 of the prevention of the distribution of contagious dis- 

 eases from individual to individual must rest upon the 

 home maker. The doctor comes in for a few moments 

 only, the nurse is only occasionally at hand, and the duty 

 of protecting the inmates of the home from disease must 

 fall upon the one who is at the head of it. To do it she 

 must proceed according to the same principles by which 

 she protects her food from decay. As she is obliged to 

 use devices to keep bacteria away from all putrescible food 

 materials, and as she must keep decaying apples away 

 from the perfect ones, so it is her duty to guard the mem- 

 bers of her family from the invasion of the disease germs. 



In her battle against disease the housewife should 

 remember three things. 



