[37] “Consumption is a disease which can be taken from others, and is not simply caused by colds. A cold may make it easier to take the disease. It is usually caused by germs which enter the body with the air breathed. The matter which consumptives cough or spit up contains these germs in great numbers—frequently millions are discharged in a single day. This matter spit upon the floor, wall, or elsewhere is apt to dry, become pulverized, and float in the air as dust. The dust contains the germs, and thus they enter the body with the air breathed. The breath of a consumptive does not contain the germs and will not produce the disease. A well person catches the disease from a consumptive only by in some way taking in the matter coughed up by the consumptive.”—Extract from a circular issued by the Board of Health of New York City. [38] “The lungs from the congested state of their vessels produced by alcohol are more subject to the influence of cold, the result being frequent attacks of bronchitis. It has been recognized of late years that there is a peculiar form of consumption of the lungs which is very rapidly fatal and found only in alcohol drinkers.”—Professor H. Newell Martin. [39] “The relation to Bright’s Disease is not so clearly made out as is assumed by some writers, though I must confess to myself sharing the popular belief that alcohol is one among its most important factors.”—Robert T. Edes, M.D. [40] Thus the fibers which pass out from the sacral plexus in the loins, and extend by means of the great sciatic nerve and its branches to the ends of the toes, may be more than a yard long. [41] Remarkable instances are cited to illustrate the imperative demand for sleep. Gunner boys have been known to fall asleep during the height of a naval battle, owing to the fatigue occasioned by the arduous labor in carrying ammunition for the gunner. A case is reported of a captain of a British frigate who fell asleep and remained so for two hours beside one of the largest guns of his vessel, the gun being served vigorously all the time. Whole companies of men have been known to sleep while on the march during an arduous campaign. Cavalrymen and frontiersmen have slept soundly in the saddle during the exhausting campaigns against the Indians.