New Britain herald., 1925-08-25
Your Health How to Keep It.
 Causes of Illness
By DR. HUGH S. CUMMING Surgeon CencraI Jr,Itnd e,a

surgeon General, United States
 Public Health Service
 The germ of consumption is call ed the iubercle bacillus because small rounded bodies, tubercles, oc- cur in the tissues Of the body which are attacked by this disease. These tupercles arc characteristic manI- festations of tuberculosis. The tu- bercles bacillus is very small It can be seen only with a high.power microscope and the, aid of coloring materials. The germ is of vegetable origin and grows in the body in much the same way as mold grows upon food. It is 50 small that A thousand tubercle bacIlli piled one upon the other could not be seen by the naked eye.
 These germs do not multiply out side the body. They are killed by sunshine, by daylight and by dry ing.
 The dry and unprotected germs are killed by Il few minutes ex- posture to the direct rays of the sun and they are killed In a few days in a well lighted and well ventilated room.
 However, If they are protected by warmth, moisture and darkness, as In q dirty carpet. for instance, or in the cracks of the floor of a dark closed room, the germs may live for months.
 These germs of tuberculosis are found chiefly in the sputum of per- sons suffering with the disease.
 Scatters Germs of Tuberculosis
 The sufferer from tuberculosis leaves these germs on the spoon with which he eats, on the edge of his tea cup or glass and on the mouthpiece of his pipe.
 f the consumptive coughs with uncovered mouth he sprays forth a large number of very fine dropets which contain a multitude of tu- bcrcle bacilli in such a fine suspen- sion of moisture that they may float in the air and be inhaled directly into the lungs of someone near him.
 Flies carry h 0 consumptive's sputum on their feet from the but ter to the fruit on nearby stands or 10 food upon the table. Whether in- halod with dust or swallowed with food, the tubercle bacillus may cause tuberculosis of the lungs.
 Not all persons who get the germs of tuberculosis into their bodies develop active symptoms of the disease. It is probable that most of the germs that get into the body are destroyed before they do any harm.
 On the other hand, the germs that lodge in the body live and to a limited degree multiply and yet often never give rise to active tu- 1 berculosis, The enlarged glands SC often seen in children are more frequently than not due to tubercu. losis, yet the child may never de. velop an active form of the disease Such persons are said to be infected or to have latent tuberculosis.
 Disease Is not Hereditary
 Tuberculosis is not hereditary. you have noticed that consumption seems to run in families that is true largely because Of the exposure O. the young child to the disease.
 If baby born of a tuberculou' mother Is removed from its mother immediately after birth there k little, If any more danger of tha baby's developing tuberculosis thar there is of child born of a healthy mother.
 These latent germs of infection potential factors of tuberculosis ir themselves, probably give a certain degree of immunity against the eff fccts of larger doses which one ma, unfortunately experience. The in diVidual may be in a small degree vacCinated ga ainst tuberculosis However, too much comfort should not be derived from this since il young children infection in any de gree may become generali2ed ant prove fatal. A person who has latent infection may through strain stress or illness, develop active tu herculosis at any period of life.