16  Books  as  a  Source  of  Disease.       { ATanuiry  191T' 
Quite  a  number  of  physicians  have  sent  me  histories  of  cases,  which 
they  have  observed  during  their  practice. 
The  medical  and  library  periodicals  are  constantly  printing 
notices  about  disease  being  contracted  from  books,  and  as  in  the 
case  of  the  theory  of  insects  transmitting  disease  germs,  at  first 
ridiculed,  but  now  acknowledged  to  be  true  by  the  most  skeptical, 
so  are  books  now  passing  through  the  same  criticism. 
Diseases  Claimed  to  Have  Been  Traced  to  Books. 
Scarlet  Fever. — Dr.  J.  Allen  Palmer,  of  Erie,  Kansas,  notes  a 
case  of  scarlatina  developing  in  a  girl,  living  in  a  town  where  there 
had  been  no  cases  of  the  disease  for  months,  nor  had  she  been 
exposed  to  personal  contact.  Investigation  showed  that  the  patient 
had  received  a  letter  a  few  days  previous  to  the  appearance  of  the 
rash,  from  a  child  living  some  sixty  miles  from  her,  who  was  just 
recovering  from  scarlatina.  Another  case  of  transmission  was  traced 
by  Dr.  Howard  W.  Lyon,  of  Chicago.  In  this  instance  a  little  girl 
living  in  Chicago  contracted  scarlatina  from  being  allowed  to  handle 
a  letter  just  received  from  a  home  in  Minneapolis,  where  one  of  the 
family  had  the  disease. 
Dr.  A.  Maverick,  of  San  Antonio,  Texas,  sent  the  following  case : 
A  boy  convalescent  from  scarlet  fever  read  a  book  from  the  public 
library  and  used  as  book-marks  strips  of  skin  peeled  from  his  hands 
and  feet.  Unknown  to  the  physician,  the  book  was  returned  to  the 
library  by  a  servant  of  the  household  with  no  attempt  at  sterilization 
or  even  removing  the  pieces  of  skin.  During  the  next  month,  two 
boys  in  different  families  who  borrowed  the  book  from  the  library, 
caught  scarlet  fever  and  one  died  from  the  disease. 
Diphtheria. — Dr.  Robert  Britton,  of  Downsville,  New  York, 
writes  of  two  cases  in  1902,  one  of  the  patients  dying,  and  as  there 
were  no  cases  of  the  disease  in  the  neighborhood,  the  question  arose 
where  had  the  children  contracted  the  infection.  Questioning  re- 
vealed, that  on  account  of  the  weather  and  conditions  of  the  road 
they  did  not  attend  school  on  March  27,  but  played  in  a  house 
having  a  garret,  in  which  were  stored  some  old  school  books  which 
had  been  taken  from  an  old  farm-house  on  this  farm — in  which  in 
i860  had  occurred  six  cases  of  diphtheria,  four  of  which  were  fatal 
in  forty-eight  hours. 
Small-pox. — Small-pox  is  one  of  the  most  contagious  diseases, 
and  few  who  are  exposed  escape  infection.   The  contagion  exists  in 
