436 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



diphtheria, and many others may be transferred through the 

 agency of food. Fruits and vegetables may be carriers of disease, 

 especially if they are sold from exposed stalls or cars and handled by 

 the passers-by. All vegetables, fruits, or raw foods should be care- 

 fully washed before using. Spoiled or overripe fruit, as well as 

 meat which is decayed, is swarming with bacteria and should not be 

 used. The board of health has supervision over the sale of fruit, 

 meats, fish, etc., and frequently in large cities food unfit for sale 

 is condemned and destroyed. 



How the Board of Health fights Tuberculosis. — Tuberculosis, 

 which a few years ago killed fully one seventh of the people who 

 died from disease in this country, now kills less than one tenth. This 

 decrease has been largely brought about because of the treatment 

 of the disease. Since it has been proved that tuberculosis if taken 

 early enough is curable, by quiet living, good food, and ■plenty of 

 fresh air and light, we find that numerous sanatoria have come into 

 existence which are supported by private or public means. At 

 these sanatoria the patients live out of doors, especially sleep 

 in the air, while they have plenty of nourishing food and little 

 exercise. In this way and by tenement-house laws which require 

 proper air shafts and window ventilation in dwellings, by laws 

 against spitting in public places, and in other ways the boards of 

 health in our towns and cities are waging war on tuberculosis. 



Reference Books 



Sharpe, A Laboratory Manual for the Solution oj Problems in Biology. American 



Book Company. 

 Allen, Civics and Health. Ginn and Company. 



Davison, The Human Body and Health. American Book Company. 

 Gulick Hygiene Scries, Town and City. Ginn and Company. 

 Hough and Sedgwick, The Human Mechanism. Ginn and Company. 

 Richman and Wallach, Good Citizenship. American Book Company. 

 Ritchie, Primer of Sanitation. World Book Company. 



Reports, etc. 

 American Health Magazine. 



Annual Report of Department of Health, City of New York (and other cities). 

 Bulletins and Publications of Committee of One Hundred on National Health. 

 School Hygiene, American School Hygiene Association. 



