GENERAL SANITARY RULES 253 



of patients with the other members of the family. It is 

 a disease associated with small rooms, poor ventilation, 

 and crowded houses where the healthy members of the 

 family live with consumptive patients and frequently sleep 

 with them. Under such conditions contagion is almost 

 sure, and the disease spreads from person to person just 

 as decay spreads from apple to apple in a barrel. More 

 air, more light, more care of the sputum and other dis- 

 charges, greater attention given to guarding against the 

 coughing of the patient, as for example inducing him to 

 cough into cloths that can be burned, — these are the 

 remedies against the spread of the contagion, and strict 

 attention to these facts would soon convince any one that 

 the disease is not hereditary but due to infectious matter 

 disseminated from the patient. The child of a consump- 

 tive mother may even nurse at his mother's breast with 

 little danger of contagion'; but sleeping with her and 

 breathing her breath while she is coughing is very likely 

 to give him the disease and lead to the erroneous belief 

 that he inherited it from his mother. 



General Rules 



There are a few simple rules whose observance will 

 reduce the chances of contagion. These rules should be 

 followed by all, but it is particularly important that chil- 

 dren in every household, and especially children in schools, 

 should be taught their significance. The most important 

 rules are : 



Do not spit on the floor. 



Do not put the fingers in the mouth. 



