The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-12-06
HOW DISEASES ARE CAUGHT"
Board of Health Bulletin)


called-as to how diseases are
transmitted, need considerable re-
vision
People still labor under the delu-
sion that infectious diseases are
spread by contact with things,
while the fact is, that infected indi-
viduals. not things, are the real
menace Some are afraid to touch d
car strap or a book that has been
used by strangers, and some, much
as they like money, insist on having
new bills, and only under the stress
of unavoidable circumstances will
they break the rule and take what
they can get.
DIR. Alvah H. Doty, formerly
health officer of the Port of New
York, has quite recently discussed
the subject, showing the foolishness
of the dear, deluded people in their
fear that infection turks everywhere
in public conveyances, in clothing,
money, rags, and car straps and that
diseases are conveyed through and
by such means. If infectious dis
eases were really conveyed by such
media, one of the best carriers
imaginable would be old rags, and a
test of this theory would be found
in the rag markets of Alexandria,
Egypt, where the rags are largely
the cast off clothing of the natives,
much of which is gathered from the
interior where infectious diseases
are always prevalent. Yet the Brit
ish sanitary officers have never dis
covered infection among the men,
women and children whose sole oc-
cupation is to handle the rather dis
gushing merchandise.
In the Bureau at Washington,
where old currency is received for
redemption, infectious disease has
never occurred among the clerks
who handle it.
There must he some good reason
for such immunity and probably it
is in the fact that the germs of in
fictitious diseases find their most nat
ural habitation in the warmth Of
the human body and not in mani
mate objects which do not furnish
conditions favoring their existence
and activity.
/ 1t is the custom to fumigate the
room that has been occupied by a
tuberculous patient. 1t is a wise
precaution, yet it's greatest actual
benefit is the moral satisfaction that
every possible precaution has been
taken against spreading the disease
A careful exposure of the bedding
and other articles used by the pa
tient to the bright sun and fresh air
would be much more effective than
the formaldehyde bath or the sui
phur candle.
The reason is that the tubercular
bacillus, as we'll as those of most in
fictitious diseases, dies and loses its
capacity for aggressive harm within
short time, after it has been ex-
PEELED from the mouth, throat or
lungs of the patient. 1t cannot be
lodged in the bedding, on the walls
7 or furniture and remain for long an
active menace. 1t cannot remain
suspended in the air and retain its
power for activity but expelled by
the cough or sneeZe into the face
the mouth or nostrils of another per-
son, it becomes dangerous, for it i'm
mediately finds Judgement in the
new host where every condition fav-
ors continued activity. 1t is in such
manner that the diseases of the
throat and lungs are transmitted
tuberculosis, colds, influenza anf
bronchitis. And it seems that the
infected individual is the real men.
ace to his fellows man is mans
worst enemy when it comes TIC The
transmission of infectious diseases
Another class of infection, such
as malaria, and yellow faver, is car
ried by the mosquito and these in,
sect pests become dangerous. But
they can be themselves infected only
by and from the human host, anf
again the infected man is the enemy
to his fellow men,
The millennium is pictured in
Imagination as time when the dan.
gers that now threaten and disturb
the morals and happiness of mortals
will be reduced to an inappreciable
minimum. In health matters il will
be the time when diseases, especially
infectious diseases, will be banished
and therefore cannot be spread. and
the fight for health will be thing
- I. l. 4,