Hardly as Bad as That by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 7, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 27.

Hardly as Bad as That.

By Editor

Here is a little unprofessional wisdom from the able Examiner. In speaking of the recent State Sanitary Convention, of San Jose, the editor says:—

"There is no longer a question among physicians that consumption is caught by the passage of the germs of tuberculosis from the sick to the well. Persons who keep up to the times in their reading are equally well acquainted with the fact that the disease is contagious, and would no more think of coming near a consumptive patient without precautions than they would approach a person who was down with the cholera."

The first sentence would imply that the germs were given off by the consumptive's breath, or through the pores of the skin, but Dr. Edson, of New York, and others tell us that there is no danger of living with a consumptive if the consumptive himself or herself takes proper precautions. The greatest danger from consumptives is the detestable habit, of which some Americans are guilty, of ejecting the sputum, or spittle, on the floor, hearth, carpet, sidewalk, or walls. These discharges from the mouth (we refer to pulmonary tuberculosis, or consumption of the lungs) contain countless germs; the matter soon becomes dry, floats as dust in the air, and in this way taken into the lungs, when, if conditions are favorable, the disease is planted. Let the sputum and expectorations be ejected in old cloths and then burned. This is the better way. If handkerchiefs are used, let them and the clothes of the patient be washed separately, and in such a way as not to endanger others. If the sputum is ejected, let it be in a tin cup for that purpose, in which is water to prevent drying, and let it be scalded as often as twice a day. A little carelessness may mean the loss of a life. The case is not as bad as the Examiner puts it, but it is bad enough at best. We will have more to say on this subject in the future.