dangerous, and those which are not, since the dying out of 

 disease germs outside the body is a gradual one. We know, 

 however, that the danger varies inversely with the time 

 which elapses, and that the legends of disease caused by 

 toys, locks of hair, etc., put away for months and years, are 

 almost certainly apocryphal. 



There are three principal vehicles which commonly serve 

 to effect a rather direct transfer of infectious material from 

 one person to another, and which between them account for 

 99 per cent, of all cases of communicable disease. These are 

 articles of food and drink, flies and other insects, and more 

 or less direct personal contact— food, flies, and fingers. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES 



The germs of disease leave the infected person or the 



n f carrier, in most instances, in the body dis- 



_» , _. charges. The care of sputum and the fine 



Body Dis- fe , , l \ . . . 



. spray thrown out in coughing or sneezing is 



essential in the control of such nose and 

 throat diseases as tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, whoop- 

 ing cough, scarlet fever, septic sore throat, and the like; 

 while in the control of the bowel diseases, typhoid fever, 

 cholera, hookworm disease, and dysentery, the care of intes- 

 tinal and bladder discharges is of primary importance. 



In army camps and in all unsewered districts, particularly 



_ . . , . in warm climates, the proper care of excre- 



yp . ment, so that the germs it contains may not 



be carried by flies or in other ways to food, 



is a first essential of sanitation. 



Typhoid fever earned the name, "the scourge of armies," 

 on account of the epidemics which occurred up to the pres- 

 ent century whenever large bodies of men were brought 

 together without adequate precautions in regard to the dis- 

 posal of bodily wastes. In our war with Spain, we had 

 20,738 cases of typhoid with 1,580 deaths among 108,000 

 men in a period of less than four months, nine-tenths of all 



30 



