Aja/wy  ^914"'}       Books  as  ct  Source  af  Disease.  23 
the  page  of  a  book.  Prof.  Dr.  W.  A.  Evans,  who  is  an  authority, 
states  the  case  of  a  person  who  was  infected  with  typhoid  germs  from 
books,  which  case  was  established  beyond  question.  I  had  another 
case  two  or  three  years  ago ;  a  gentleman  who  was  suffering  from 
cancer  in  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  in  which  the  tongue  and  lips  were 
also  affected,  was  reading  books  from  public  libraries  in  this  city 
for  nearly  two  years  and  until  I  was  called  to  treat  him.  He  had 
been  treated  before  by  the  "  faith  cures  "  and  by  the  followers  of 
Dowie.  This  patient  was  found  expectorating  minute  pieces  of  his 
tongue  and  lips,  which  were  a  cancerous  tissue,  all  over  the  pages 
of  the  book  he  read.  That  they  were  cancerous  was  not  only  proven 
by  my  own  examination,  but  by  that  of  Dr.  LeCount,  an  eminent 
bacteriologist,  who  reported  to  me  that  the  piece  of  tissue  submitted 
was  cancerous,  containing'  cancerous  cells. 
Of  course  I  prohibited  this  person  from  reading  any  more  books 
from  the  libraries,  and  told  his  wife  to  be  very  careful  as  the  disease 
was  contagious. 
In  my  own  experiments  I  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  colonies 
from  the  pages  and  bindings  of  all  of  the  books  examined,  and  I  also 
obtained  cultures  of  various  forms  from  dust  many  years  old,  which 
according  to  the  text-books,  should  have  been  destroyed. 
Flies. — These  insects  are  now  known  to  carry  germs.  In  some 
cases  as  many  as  six  million  have  been  found  on  a  single  specimen. 
In  very  few  cases  are  libraries  protected  by  screens ;  the  fly  just  from 
a  patient  suffering  from  a  contagious  disease,  or  off  the  waste  matter 
in  a  near-by  cesspool,  has  easy  access  to  the  interior  of  the  library, 
where,  alighting  upon  a  binding  or  page  of  an  open  book  it  proceeds 
to  eject  a  number  of  germs  with  its  excreta,  or  by  rubbing  its  body 
with  its  forelegs,  shakes  large  numbers  orf,  which  find  ready  lodge- 
ment, especially  if  the  spot  where  the  rubbing  takes  place  is  greasy, 
as  is  generally  the  case  where  a  book  has  been  much  used  or  circu- 
lated for  quite  a  number  of  times. 
People  do  not  seem  able  to  overcome  the  vulgar  habit  of  moisten- 
ing the  fingers  in  turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  books  and  again  plac- 
ing the  finger  on  the  lips  each  time  to  remoisten,  never  considering 
that  each  time  he  is,  perhaps,  transferring  germs  to  fertile  soil  for 
propagation,  resulting  in  sickness  later  on,  or  in  case  of  a  patient 
already  suffering  from  disease,  especially  tuberculosis,  helping  to 
inflict  another  victim  with  the  disease.    And  we  all  know  that  sick 
