The times., 1901-04-08
SPLITTING ON The SIDEWALK
An Effort to Stop ExpectOratiOn in
Public Places.

commissioner
special supervision over the Health De-
partment, has decided to take up the
matter of prohibiting expectoration on
| the sidewalks and in public places.
| Numerous complaints relative to splitting
on the sidewalks have been sent to the
! Commissioners, and several suggestions
| have reached them as to the manner of
! dealing with the nuisance. The Commits
! sioners are of the opinion that public
| sentiment is ripe for some course of
action that will lessen, if not prohibit,
| the evil complained of.
| With d view to ascertaining just what
may be done under existing law in the
! District, Commissioner Macfarland has
/ forwarded to his colleagues a communi-
/ cation recently received, with the recon-
mendation that it be referred to the
| Health Officer for his consideration and
| report. After this report is received it
| is likely that the matter will also be re-
| ferred to the Attorney for the District
| so that the Board can be advised specifi-
cally as to their authority to stop pro-
| miscuous splitting in public places. The
! communication referred to was a state
| ment of what is being done in New
York along this line, supplemented by
! the views of DR.. John b. Crosby, Com
| missioner to the Board of Health. 1t
was published in yesterdays Times.
Commissioner Macfarland, in speaking
| of the matter, said he felt as though
something ought to be done to stop ex-
pectoration on the sidewalks, at least
where people constantly pass. He stated
that the continual splitting of those us
| ing tobacco and others afflicted with
| throat and lung diseases had become
public nuisance of alarming proportions,
as well as a means of disseminating sew
/ eral forms of disease. Mr. Macfarland
| thought that possibly the laws of the Dis
/ trict would not admit of making arrests
and fining the offenders, is being done
| in New York, bat he hoped ii would be
found that the Commissioners were
clothed with sufficient authority to en-
force some regulation against the spitters.
The Commissioner called attention to the
fact that the prohibition against expec-
toration in street cars is almost univer-
sally observed by the people OF the Dis
trict Now, he thought the authorities
might go a step farther. and stop the
practice so far as il is done on the side
walks, and in other public places. Mr..
Macfarland stated that he and his col
leagues were not yet certain what course
to pursue, but that it would be determined
within a short time.
The views of DR.. William c. Woodward,
the District Health officer, upon the sub
ject are well known from having been pre-
sented in some of his annual reports 10
the Commissioners. a short time ago DR..
Woodward spoke at length upon the
point under consideration as it relates
to the spread of consumption. He stated
that scientific research has fully demon
strated the fact that tuberculosis is an
infectious disease; that it is not inherited,
but is conveyed from one to another by
personal association. The sick one might,
in his view, infect a whole family by the
germs cast off from his body. DR.. Wood
ward regards the sputum Of the person
suffering with consumption as the pri-
mary, If not the sole, source of contagion.
From il he believes the microbes get into
the air infect the room where the patient
lies, even the house, and are carried by
millions into the air outside. This being
so, DIR. Woodward said that the danger
from consumptives expectorating in the
streets, on the sidewalks, or in the offices
or shops where they work is obvious. He
explained that the chief danger lies in
the drying of the sputUm when the tuber
cule bacilli are released and are carried
away in the air.
Dr. Woodward is Of the opinion that,
owing to the present custom in allowing
persons who are consumptives their free
dom, and the privilege of unlimited ex-
pectoration, the air Of most cities is pretty
well impregnated with the germs of
tuberculosis. and, of course. other com
municable disease. He thinks that these
microbes frequently are carried into the
lungs in the act of inspiration. In well
persons, finding no lodgment or being
-.
lieves they do no harm. Those constitu-
tionally weak, however, or with chronic
catarrh, he thinks easily acquire con-
sumption and other maladies, the germs
finding favorable lodgment on the morbid
or diseased throat or lung membranes.
IN his opinion, it is the systems of those
specially prepared for it that take the
disease. and not from any lack of infec-
tious germs.
DR.. Woodward, being of the opinion that
the dried sputa of consumptives. diph-
theretics, scarlet fever patients. and
others is the primary cause of the
scattering of the germs of those diseases
is naturally In favor Of any action which
VIII have for its object the cessation Of
the habit Of expectoration. Dr. Wood
ward delineated what might be expected
10 take place after consumptive has
expectorated on the sidewalk or in the
street. THE sputum quickly dries" he
said, and in drying the germs are car
ried away by the wind. They are dashed
into the faces of hundred people who
pass that way. Perhaps the father Of a
family steps where the consumptive ex-
perforated and colony of the germs
attach to his shoe and are carried home
TO be breathed by a puny boy or girl
who dies few years later. Perhaps a
woman with trailing dress wipes up a
number OF these germs. and her sister
or some one else is afforded the means of
contracting tuberculosis and coming to a
sad and untimey death"
Dr Woodward said that this was no
nlBht OF tancy but was what was going
on all the time in Washington where
between 700 and 500 die every year from
consumption.
On the occasion TO which reference is
made Or. Woodward did not have in mind
any official action TO prohibit splitting, He
took the ground then that stamping ont
consumption could not be done In "A hur-
~, because the public is not educated I'D
70 =. Lile polnt OF putting Into operation GER
talns means of sanitation which might
De required TO deal with the problem ef-
lectiVely. lie did not believe, for instance
that the public was ready to insist unon
the isolation of the consumptive, as upon
the smallpox patient. DIR. Woodward ex-
pressed the view that more was to be
hoped for by the general educa ton of the
public In the public schools, and by other
means. regarding the danger of personal
association with those afflicted with con-
taSious disease. His idea was that when
the public is ready To deal with other con
taslous diseases as radically as is done
with smallpox, and as is being gradually
done with diphtheria and scarlet fever
there would be some hope of exterrninat3
ing those diseases.
DR.. Woodward went on TO explain that
when these things were properly under
stood the conSumptiVe and those having
other contagious maladies would be iso-
lated in comfortable surroundings Those
who were called upon to care for them