WHAT EVERY PERSON SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS, WHETHER HE HAS THE DISEASE OR NOT.

Tuberculosis is caused by a germ.

Tuberculosis is communicable and preventable.

Consumption of the lungs is the most common form of tuberculosis.

Consumption of the bowels is the next most common form.

The germ causing tuberculosis leaves the body of the person who has the disease by means of the discharges; by the sputum coughed up from the lungs, by nasal discharge, by bowel excrement, by urine, by abscesses.

If the sputum of the consumptive is allowed to dry, its infected dust floats in the air, and is breathed into the lungs.

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Any person breathing such air is in danger of contracting tuberculosis.  It is best not to stand near a person suffering with tuberculosis who is coughing, because in this act finely divided droplets of saliva are thrown from the mouth, and may be carried for a distance of three feet.  These may contain large numbers of the bacilli.  They are also sometimes thrown out in forcible speaking.  The ordinary breath of a consumptive does not contain them.

If the bowels or other discharges from the tuberculous person are not disinfected, but are thrown into a sewer, privy, river or buried they are a source of danger, and may pollute a source of drinking water.

Impure milk, that is, milk from a tuberculous cow or milk exposed to infected dust is a common source of tuberculosis.  Milk from suspected sources should be boiled.  The all-important thing to do to prevent tuberculosis from spreading from one person to another, and from one part of the body to another, is immediately to destroy all discharges from the body of a person who has tuberculosis.

Destroy by fire or by disinfectant all sputum, all nasal discharges, all bowel excrement, all urine as soon as discharged.  For such a purpose use a five per cent solution of carbolic acid (six and three-fourths ounces of carbolic acid to one gallon of water).

No person, well or sick, should spit in public places or where the sputum cannot be collected and destroyed.

Flies carry sputum and its infection to food, to your hands, your face, clothes, the baby’s bottle, from which the germs are taken into the mouth, and thus gain access to the stomach or lungs.

Spitting on the sidewalk, on the floor, on the wall, on the grass, in the gutter, or even into a cuspidor containing no disinfectant is a very dangerous practice for a consumptive to indulge.

The person infected with tuberculosis should protect himself, his family, his associates and the public by not spitting in public places, and by promptly destroying all discharges.

The well person should defend himself by insisting that the tuberculous person shall destroy all discharges.