You remember, Mary, you told me of your little friend, Lucy Stevens, who has been ill a long time, and who is quite lame. She has to use crutches to walk with because her hip is diseased. Uncle John says this is because she has tuberculosis of the hip joint. It is strange, but often after these little plants or seed get into the body, they may travel to any part of it, and set up house-keeping for themselves in a gland or a joint. They usually find their way to the weakest part of our bodies. PART II Uncle John says that the only cure for consumption is plenty of fresh air, good food, and the proper amount of rest. He says that patent medicines are fakes and do much harm. You can, each of you, do a great deal to prevent these plants or seeds from getting into your bodies and into the bodies of others by following these simple rules: 1. Remember that fresh air and sunshine are necessary to good health. 2. Remember that cold or damp air will not do harm if the body is kept warm. 3. Breathe through the nose only. Avoid dark, crowded, dusty, or damp rooms. Breathe deep. 4. Hold shoulders up. 5. Use your own individual drinking cup. 6. Remember that consumption is spread by careless spitting. Do not spit on the floor of rooms, halls, or cars. 7. Keep clean and bathe frequently, at least twice a week. 8. Always wash your hands before eating. 9. Brush your teeth after each meal. 10. Never put money, pencils, pens, or anything that another person has handled, in your mouth. 11. Do not bite off fruit that other people have bitten. 12. Do not kiss babies or sick persons. QUESTIONS 1. What do you call the little plants that cause tuberculosis or consumption? How big are these plants or germs? 2. What part of garden plants are these germs like? Why do you think so? 3. Big plants in the garden get their food from the water in the soil. I wonder if any of you can tell me where these little germ-plants get their food? When we see persons with consumption we know that these little germ-plants are growing on the cells of their lungs. This causes their lung cells and the tissue that binds them together to decay. Then these people have to cough and spit this decayed matter up. Every bit of it is often filled with these little germ-plants, or seed of consumption. 4. Then what should be done with this spit to keep any one else from taking the disease? 5. Germs are often carried in little particles of dust. How may we keep from getting germs in this way? 6. How else may these little plants get into our bodies?