Consumption : its causes and means of prevention : a circular / issued by the State Board of Health.

  • Connecticut. State Board of Health.
Date:
[1895?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Consumption : its causes and means of prevention : a circular / issued by the State Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    very long and very strong life. If lie sows it broad- cast about him in his spittle, it soon dries and floats in the air to reinfect himself and infect others who may breathe in the deadly dust. This germ is not easily killed by disinfectants. They will destroy it only after contact for a long time. Even boiling it for fifteen minutes is not effectual. Burning- by fire is the best means of destroying it; fire is infallible. It resists cold, also. When the spittle of a consumptive has passed out of his possession, he can not recover it. He has sent it on its mission of death with heedless indifference, to find such victims as it may. Public safety requires that any person who has pulmonary consumption should spit nowhere, except upon or into some recep- ticle which may be burned with the disease-germs which his expectoration contains. Pocket spit-cups have been invented, but old handkerchiefs, freshly- washed rags or cheap Japanese napkins are admirably adapted for such purpose, and can be burned without loss. If all the sputa of all tuberculous persons, from this time on, could be utterly destroyed, the next gen- eration would, in all probability, be practically exempt from this most fatal malady. But other precautions are necessary; no person should sleep in a room occupied by a consumptive. Rooms so occupied become infected and have been proved to be the cause of the disease in many cases. Such rooms should be frequently disinfected by scien- tific methods. The dry broom, the feather duster