The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-25

perts as to how this prevention can be accomplished.
 T. In the schools every teacher should have systematic instruction in certain phases of hygiene. and should see that the children under his or her care are thoroughly trained to avoid the usual sources of infection: The common drink ing cup, whether in public school or rail- road train, is a gift from the devil. In dividual cups or paper envelopes should be used.
 ''The roller towel, where dozens of half washed faces wipe away the dirt, saliva and nasal discharge is menace of the worst kind. The prevalent custom of borrowing pencils that other children have saturated with saliva, the exchange of handkerchiefs, and the spreading of lunches together, should be prohibited. Children should be taught that ventila- ton is more important than warmth, moderation more essential than satiety.
 ''2. Now just a word to the home keepers: If you have a servant in your employ with tuberculosis, the danger from contact with your children is constant and imminent. The average person af- fiicted with tuberculosis seriously doubts the correctness of the physicians diag- nosis, and even to the last stages con- fidently hopes for returning health. As George Eliot has said, 'Hopefulness is the beneficent delusion of consumptve patients. And servants, be it remem- hered, will continue their work, hoping for recovery until forced by sheer exhaus . tion to give up their work. Every mother should require thorough physical exam ination by her own family physician of every applicant who seeks domestic serv- in a household may be far more dan- gerous than the minimizing housewife suspects
 a. Now a word to the voters: Every case of tuberculosis ought to be reported to the health authorities. In this way only can we keep properly informed as to the presence and progress of the dis ease in various districts, and formulate measures for proper disinfection.
 Needed Laws.
 Again, railroads should be required to furnish separate compartments for con- sumptive patients, and heavy fine im- posed upon every tuberculosis patient who occupies any other compartment.
 Every room occupied by tuberculosis patients should be thoroughly disinfected by the proper authorities at regular in- tervals, and no house formerly occupied by tuberculosis family should be rented until the owner secures a certificate of disinfection from the supervising health officer.
 ",rhe laws against expectorating in pub lie places street cars and sidewalks should be most vigorously enforced. Laws should forbid trailing skirts to appear on the streets. They pick up filth and carry it home to poison the infant. Every applicant for entrance into the public schools should prtsent a certificate from a licensed physician that the child has been thoroughly examined and is not af- fiicted with tuberculosis. The laws should forbid tuberculosis subjects to marry un- til two full years have elapsed. Time fails me to mention all the various laws
 
 this dreadful malady.
 'Mostly we need campaign Of educa- ton. This exhibit is bare beginning Every public school should have a phy- sician on It's staff as teacher Of hygiene and he should appear two or three times each week and by lectures, photographs or stereopticon illustrations, much on the order that we have in this exhibit, im- press on the growing minds how to avoid the danger of tuberculosis, and various other preventable diseases. Then he should examine all the children and weed out the dangerous pupils.
 ''Now a word to business men: Don't require your employees to work In dark, damp, unventllated rooms. Permit no persons suspected of tuberculosis to re- main in your factory or workshop until they present a certificate from a properly qualified physician that they are free of infection. Punish with immediate dis charge all persons found expectorating on floors or through windows.
 Let everybody urge our lawmakers to provide suitable hospitals, not only for the incipient cases that present some nrospect of final cure, but also for tho large number of hopelessly diseased, who have no home comforts, but must decline and die in the home circle, where they hourly cough out, or expectorate millions of germs. which may dry and finally find Judgment in the delicate tissues of their immediate loved ones
 But finally the physician will ever rec oenize that his most valued services Is to help the afflicted. give comfort give ease. allay the cough, palliate the pain, stimulate the Tagging heart. and by his manner. by his words and his life, point ever upward and hopeward.
 "Encouraged by the laudable assistance of men in other lines of life. we can then look forward to some future time when tuberculosis will be as rare as smallpox. And no more will we hear the sad and humiliating complaints: Tn Ramah was there voice heard, lamenta- tion and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children. and would not be comforted because they are