The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-06-20
THE UNCONsIDERED ROUTE
 OF INFECTION

Correspondent complains that 1t is difficult to get Q ticket, program, street-car transfer or even a news paper without being contaminated by the vendors saliva, thanks to the universal habit of moistening thumb or finger with saliva to handle such things.
 In my opinion, splitting on the street, the floor or on the hand to facilitate turning page is ir1signifi- cant so far as public health is con- cerned. If I were king I'd do away with ali ordinances or regulations against splitting, except one which the worst offenders would most re- sent, namely: DO Not Spit Tn My Face" That is precisely what the majority of nice, refined, educated, polite people do when they have what they please to call a "cold". They insist on the right to converse with friends or to keep up and about their ordinary work or play, which involves more or less talking with companions, customers, clients, pupils, employees at close range. Dur ing polite conversation there is giv- en off from nose and mouth mois- ture spray composed largely of in- visibly fine droplets of moisture but droplets which may contain great numbers of the germs of whatever disease the individual happens to be coming down with. This spray car- ries from two to five feet to lodge directly upon another's lips, per- haps. This is the common, everyday route of infection with any and all of the common respiratory infec- tions which masquerade in polite society as "colds" in the early stage before one can know what the ill., ness or indisposition is to be.
 Unpleasant thought, eh? That's what the pampered nephew of the gent who owns the air informed me when I was about to explain all this to the listeners on @ chain of radio stations. Freedom of speech in Yam keeland. Interests paying for use of the air preferred to soft-pedal this teaching. It wouldn't help their business much. Tn the U. 8. A. bus mess is first, minor considerations afterward.
 Saliva that contaminates paper money, newspaper, transfer, ticket, program or finger or hand may carry infection, as in the custom of shaking hands, but 1t is unlikely that this indirect route is imEortant in the spread of disease, for the simple scientific reason that germs quickly lose their virulence when exposed to temperature below that of the blood for few seconds or minutes. Ordinary soap and water cleanliness is pretty good protection against this hazard. But no such cleanliness offers the slightest bar to everyday respiratory infection by the direct route, conversational spray. Here is the source of at least three -fourths of all the illness phy- sicians attend. Not casual contact with soiled or contaminated door, knobs, telephone transmitters, chair arms, hanging straps-these may be sources of ringworm, scabies and Otner COnCaBloub ulSSnoSo, uue HUI of everyday infections.
 I believe shaking hands is not at all dangerous in itself, provided one disciplines oneself to avoid putting fingers to mouth without first wash ing the hands. But to shake hands with any one you must come within five-foot conversational spray range, and the germladen spray gets you while you are performing the rite.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Gall Bladder
 What are the effects of removal of the gall bladder? e. (W. A. W.)
 Answer-No effects physiologic- ally. The remaining portion of gall- duct carries on the comparatively unimportant function, temporary storage of bile.