TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 21, 1900

TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.

The Committee on Public Health of Glasgow, Scotland, has issued the following instructions, with the hope that the citizens will read and give heed to them:—

Consumption is an acquired, not a hereditary, disease.

What a child may inherit is not the seed, but the “good ground,” in which the seed will grow readily.

This is known as a hereditary predisposition to consumption. Special care ought to be taken to protect persons possessing it from any chance of catching the disease.

Colds, sore throats, infectious diseases (especially measles, whooping cough, scarlet and enteric fevers), intemperance, overcrowding, darkness, dampness, stale air—in short, whatever lowers health produces a predisposition to consumption, although apart from any chance of catching the disease.

Consumption of the lungs is only one of the many forms of disease caused by a minute living creature (germ or microbe), the bacillus of tubercle. Every case of consumption has received this bacillus either from man or beast (milk, flesh), and may pass it on to man or beast.

Good health, local and general, is like a coat of mail against the attacks of the bacillus of tubercle.

Every person having consumption suffers from a disease that may be communicated to other persons. This takes place through the spit, which contains bacilli.

So long as the spit is moist, it can do no harm, unless under such circumstances as are dealt with in rules 6 and 7.

The spit is seriously dangerous only when allowed to dry, become dust, and so infect the air we breathe.

The surest way to form infectious dust is to spit in a handkerchief, and put it in the pocket or beneath the pillow, or to spit upon the floor.

The same result follows if spit is smeared over the bedclothes, night dresses, etc., or, in case of men, over mustache or beard.

Practically, then, a case of consumption may be made perfectly harmless by preventing the spit from becoming dust.

1. Indoors, the greatest care is necessary. Dust in closed places is the dust that infects. Use a spittoon containing a little water (not sand or sawdust), or spit into a rag or piece of paper, to be burned at once or thrown into the water-closet.

2. Out of doors, dust is not readily formed in our damp climate, and it is disinfected by sunshine and fresh air. It is, therefore, better to spit on the ground than into a handkerchief, or into anything that is to be put into one’s pocket, except a special spit bottle, such as may be had for a small sum. Failing this, spit over a street gulley or into the gutter, never on the pavement, and never in a tram car, bus, or railway carriage. Never swallow the spit; it may infect the bowels.

3. If a handkerchief or other article is soiled with tuberculous spit, keep it wet until it can be boiled or washed.

4. Empty the contents of the spittoon down the water-closet, and clean the spittoon with boiling water. A little carbolic acid will keep the flies away; these carry off infective matter.

5. In cleaning rooms occupied by consumptives, capture the dust with damp dusters and tea leaves or damp sawdust used in sweeping. Do not chase it about nor stir it up. Boil the dusters; burn the sawdust and tea leaves.

6. No spoon, cup, or other article that has been applied to the mouth of a consumptive ought to be used by a healthy person until it has been carefully washed. The remains of food left by a consumptive ought not to be used by the healthy.

7. No consumptive ought to kiss or be kissed, except on the cheek or brow.

8. No consumptive mother should give suck.

9. A consumptive person ought to have a bed by himself.

10. Sunlight and fresh air are never-failing disinfectants. Use them freely.

N. B.—Consumption is not communicable by the breath or perspiration. If these precautions are attended to, there is no danger to the healthy in the ordinary intercourse of family or society.

It is necessary that washing and disinfection should be effectively carried out after every death from consumption.

The services of the sanitary department are at the disposal of the ratepayers for this purpose. Immediate notice of such an event ought to be sent to the medical officers of health.

During the currency of cases of tuberculous disease in which there is a discharge the medical officers will give any assistance in the way of washing and disinfection that may seem expedient in the public interest.