472 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



be transmitted by dust in the air. The bacteria get into 

 the air chiefly, if not wholly, from sputum, which after 

 drying may be taken up by the wind. For many localities 

 the board of health reports will show that more than one- 

 seventh of all the deaths are caused by the bacteria of 

 tuberculosis. Regulations of the authorities with regard to 

 spitting in public places should be heeded most carefully. 



The Skin. — If cuts or scratches become inflamed, "sore," 

 fester, and discharge pus, we may know that bacteria have 

 forced an entrance. Thus, all breaks in the skin should 

 be kept clean and carefully protected from dust. 



The Mouth. — This is perhaps the most important por- 

 tal of infection, especially with children. Typhoid fever, 

 cholera, dysentery, and similar intestinal diseases com- 

 monly enter the system by this channel, and generally 

 either with drinking water or with food. Ascertain from 

 the board of health any local history there may be about 

 typhoid fever outbreaks. 



An instructive fragment of such local history happened in 

 Worcester, Mass., in 1896. Three cases of typhoid fever, all on the 

 same milk route, were suddenly reported to the board of health. 

 The clerk of the board hastened to the milk farm and found its pro- 

 prietor sick with typhoid fever. By completely cleansing everything 

 connected with the dairy and by insisting on its removal to a neigh- 

 boring farm, the milk route was not interfered with, and no other 

 cases developed. What might have proved a serious epidemic was 

 nipped in the bud. 



An epidemic with which the above should be contrasted happened 

 in Stamford, Conn. In the spring of 1895, 386 cases and 25 deaths 

 occurred, practically all of them on the milk route of a man who dis- 

 tributed less than one-tenth of the milk supply of the town. The 

 investigation indicated that all this suffering and loss of life was 



