New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1895-11-27

| Ao"SNN " O1CdCu VI SplttIe LII tu0 lele-
phone transmitter, where filthy deposit
already awaits it, can easily menace the
very 4:ext speaker.
Such is also the case with the germs of
scarlet fever, where the bearers of con-
tagion are the expired air of the patient,
the secretions of the pharynx and cpl
dermal scales.
Louis Starr, our own authority Oh
children's diseases, dwells on the fact
that the contagion is often brought home
by an attendants hair, beard and clothes,
and whereas it is probably rare that a
patient Ill with violent scarlet fever, with
its concomitant sore throat, would use a
telephone during his acute stage, yet the
germs cling about him long after, and
may then be carried. If diphtheria and
scarlet fever are thus easily transmitted
into and by the telephone, to what ex-
tent is tuberculosis transferred? 1t un-
questionably is contagious, and as it eau
ses one-seventh of all deaths, it is our du-
ty to combat it far more emphatically
than we have done. In Germany law
prohibiting splitting in public places has
effected lessening of the number of cases.,
conclusively proving contagiousness Of
sputa, and it is true that the telephone
mouth-piece, in realitya public spitoon,
has been often responsible in conveyance
of the disease. Undoubtedly the chief
method of infection is by inhalation of
dried sputa, yet another method exists
IN swallowing the Infectious material.
| Austin Flint even went so far as to say
that the expired breath OF those afflicted
with the disease might carry the parasi-
tic germ. Absorption of the sputa germs
may even take place through. little tiss-
1res and excavations of the skin. Vera
guth proved transmission Of tuberculosis
possible by Inhalation of germs held in a
moist spray. Hence, considering all
these methods of contagion, we should
insist on a law prohibiting the unlimited
movements of consumptives, and especl-
ally their use of the telephone.
In many cases the disease localizes it.
self in the t-echea, and as the speaker
dwells IN front of the mouthpiece, with
his lip near the rim perhaps, and with
Ill it very often, as his voice husky IAN in
voluntary cough may throw particle of
tracheal tuberculous phlegm into the
transmitter. Although the bacillus does
not thrive in such a locality or such con
ditions Of temperature, it does not lose
it's vitality. If it adheres to another's
lips and is swallowed, the speaker may
unconsciously acquire the disease. In a
rarely used telephone the consumptive
spit dries and may then be inhaled, hence
even a private telephone is not safe.
Among diseases transmitted more fire.
quently by absorption from the telephone
than consumption are cancer and svph-
Ills. The first public record of the direct
transmission of cancer poison occurred
through the late death of DR.. Burnett, a
former Bellevue hospital surgeon, who,
while treating a female witt, Il cancerous
tongue, inOculated himself with the dis
ease. His physician found that the wo-
man had contracted the disease from the
fspeaking tube in the house of man who
had cancer. 1t is easily seen how the
virns or poison OF a cancer about the lip
may be deposited on the mouthpiecc,
from which it may be absorbed by a
chapped lip or cold sore.
Syphilis is easily transmitted. Gases
are on record where syphilitic slime de-
posted over a Jointly used goblet caused
infection, and as the disease is more dis.
scminatcd than we think, there exists
greater danger.
Facial skin diseases, like eczema. bar.
b"r's itch and ring worm, are frequently
transmitted likewise, The telephone
therefore, is not only Il transmitter OF
sound, but of disease; but how can we
overcome this danger?
In surgery we rely on the bactericida
properties Of certain drugs to countcrac1
the pernicious influence of pathogeni(
germs. But our modern dressings, var.
led as they are, do not prevent the trans.
migration of micro-organisms through
their fabric. Yet as the latter is so thor.
oughly impregnated with anticeptic ma.
terial, the air as it passes through the
meshcs becomes saturated with the anti,
ceptics used. These must necessarily be
of such character and concentration as tC
exercise powerful influence over the vi.
tality of germs. I have constructed {
new gauze of silk, impregnated so thor.