Connecticut western news., 1895-08-22
CONSUMPTION.
It's Cause and Means of Prevention.

IA circular issued by the State Board oi
 Health, for public information
 Consumption is the most destructive disease among us. More than 8 thou. sand people die from it in this state, every year. Much of this suffering and sorrow can be prevented by proper care on the part of the sick and those who attend them. The disease is prevent able one. It Is now known that it's cause is a germ called the Tubercle Bacillus. This germ Is found iu i'm. mense numbers in the spittle of con- sumptive patients. When this spittle dries, the invisible germs which it con- tains in enormous numbers, rise and float in the air with the dust, and may be breathed into our lungs. Healthy persons may thus take the disease. This Is the usual mode of infection. Therefore the key to the control of con- sumption lies in the immediate and ab- solute destruction of the infected sputa of all consumptives. For every such person is a producer of consumption seed, which is a living germ of very long and very strong life. If he sows it broadcast about him in his spittle, it
  feet 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 long time. Even boiling it for fifteen minutes is not effectual. Burn ing by fire is the best means of destroy ing it; fire is infallible. It resists cold. also.
 When the spittle of consumptive has passed out of his possession, he can not recover it. He has sent it on It's mission of death with needless indiffer- ence, to find such victims as 1t may. Public safety requires that any person who has pulmonary consumption should spit NOWHERE, except upon or into some receptacle which may be burned with the disease germs which his expectora- tion 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 generation would, in all probability, be practically exempt from this most fatal malady.
 But other precautions are necessary no person should sleep in room oc- cupied by consumptige. Rooms so occupied before infected and have been proved to be the cause of the disease in many cases. Such rooms should be frequently disinfected by scientific methods. The dry broom, the feather duster and all it's substitutes, should be rigorously expelled from every con- sumptive habitation. The damp cloth and the fire should be the chief imple- ments of house-cleaning where con- sumptives dwell.
 Tuberculous mothers should not nurse their children, because the germs are sometimes found in the milk. The milk of tuberculons cows should never be used. ....-
 Members of tuberculous families ought to find out-of-door occupation. Overcrowding, bad ventilation in houses or shops, employments which make dust, dampness of the soil. increase the liability to tuberculous infection, and are therefore to be avoided
 It would be general public educa- tor, if there could be hung in street and railway cars, public halls, theaters, business offices and stores, conspicuous notices to this effect: SETTING ON THE FLOOR POSITIVELY FOR
 RIDDEN.
 They would be constant reminders, and by working reform in the disgusting habit of splitting, would contribute largely to public safety.
 The State Board of Health. believing that any effort to restrict and control the prevalence of consumption. will be failure without the hearty and intelli- gent co cooperation of the public, issues this circular in the hope that the infor- nation which 1t gives will awaken an in- terest which will bring practical results.