Instead of blaming water supplies, dusty streets, or even contagion by the breath, sanitarians are everywhere putting emphasis upon the actual contact of moist mucus with milk and other food, in preparation or in serving. It is not a supercilious notion to examine tumblers for finger marks, or to object to the habit of wetting the finger with saliva in turning leaves of books. These little unclean acts are the unconscious habits that cling to a person in spite of education from reading. The greatest service to be done today in improving the health of the community is in the application of the principles which may be summed up in the phrases--fresh air all the twenty-four hours, clean hands the livelong day, the free use of the handkerchief to protect from contamination of mouth and nose. All these small personal habits should be taught in the earliest months of life, _i. e._, in the home; but if the child reaches school untaught, then in defense of the whole community the school must insist upon teaching them. CHAPTER VII _Stimulative education for adults. Books, newspapers, lectures, working models, museums, exhibits, moving pictures._ The efficient sanitarian is not so great when he conquers a raging epidemic as when he prevents an epidemic that might have raged but for his preventive care, and for this result his most continuous and effectual work is to educate--educate--educate. _Wm. H. Brewer, New Haven Health Association, 1905._ The essential fact in man’s history to my sense is the slow unfolding of a sense of community with his kind, of the possibilities of coöperation leading to scarce-dreamt-of collective powers, of a synthesis of the species, of the development of a common general idea, a common general purpose out of a present confusion. _H. G. Wells, First and Last Things._ The great mass of the population is, indeed, at the present time like clay which has hitherto been a mere deadening influence underneath, but which this educational process, like some drying and heating influence upon that clay, is rendering resonant. _H. G. Wells, New Worlds for Old._ CHAPTER VII In a store an advertisement reads: “Any kind of tea you prefer; no charge whatever.” She: “The women look so tired when they come in, and in ten minutes they are so rested and refreshed.” He: “Ready to go home?” She: “Why, no--ready to do some more shopping.” _Spectator, The Outlook, December 18, 1909._ Something in motion and something to eat attract the crowd. The social worker is just beginning to realize what the manufacturer and the department storekeeper have long since found out. Why is it not legitimate to “attract a crowd,” to do them a good service in showing them how to save money as well as in impelling them to spend it? It is wiser to _show how_ before explaining why.