It is extremely important, then, that the clergyman or charitable visitor, in giving views on medical matters, which are sure to have much more weight than he perhaps attributes to them himself, should be careful not to make statements for which he has not good authority in modern medical science. It is very easy, in a matter of this kind, to state principles that are not the result of education, properly so called, but are gleaned from early false impressions obtained one knows not how or where, entirely without definite consciousness as to their real origin. The physician himself finds that he is compelled to be careful of this same tendency to put too much stress on traditions with regard to health which he imbibed before he began to study medicine. It is perhaps not so surprising, then, to hear physicians complain often that clergymen instead of being a help are sometimes a hindrance to the enforcement of modern hygienic rules, because they still cling to old-fogy notions of hygiene and sanitation retained from a defective early training. Owing to the influence that the clergyman is sure to exert, this becomes an extremely important matter. Great harm may be done and the physician discredited, almost without a realisation, on the part of the clergyman, that he is interfering in another's department. Sympathetic coordination of clerical and medical efforts would accomplish much good that is now unfortunately left undone. There is no doubt that for the important crusade against tuberculosis, for instance, the aid of the clergyman will accomplish much for the reduction of the death rate from this disease. What is needed at the present moment is a universal conviction that tuberculosis is not an hereditary but a communicable disease. This does not mean that it is virulently contagious and that as a result sufferers from tuberculosis must at once be segregated from other members of the family and from the community generally; but it does mean that careful precautions must be taken with regard to the disposal of sputum, with the enforcement of the most exacting cleanliness on the part of consumptives themselves. {90} It also means that the person suffering from the disease should not sleep with those as yet unaffected, nor be allowed to live in very close contact, especially with children or susceptible individuals.