Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing — John Shaqi
Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
History
Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
Medicine -- History
The degree of success which may attend our crusade against tuberculosis
will largely depend upon the wide diffusion of the knowledge of its
communicability by means of the sputum dried and powdered and floating
in the air as dust, and the intelligent persistence with which the
morbid material may be safely cared for at its sources. The resolute
avoidance by consumptives of the not only filthy but dangerous practice
of spitting upon floors or streets, or anywhere else except into proper
receptacles; the use of receptacles which may be and are frequently and
thoroughly cleansed, and, best of all, of water-proof paper cups, which
with their contents may be burned; or, when circumstances require, the
receiving of the dangerous material on cloths or Japanese paper napkins,
which may be destroyed by fire, and not on more valuable handkerchiefs
on which the sputum is allowed to dry while in use or before
disinfection and washing; scrupulous care by others of the sputum of
those too ill to care for it themselves--these are the comparatively
simple means from which we may most confidently expect relief. The
details of these precautions and their adaptation to the special
circumstances of those suffering from the disease can be most wisely
left to the physician, and though of paramount importance, need not
further engage our attention here.
To the consumptive himself these measures are not without a vital
significance. For his chances of recovery may be in no small degree
diminished if he be more or less constantly liable to a fresh infection
from material which he has once got rid of, and which should have been
destroyed.
The great volumes of fresh, moving air which we encounter out-of-doors
in properly cleansed streets usually so greatly dilutes the dust, of
whatever kind, that little apprehension need be felt from its presence.
When, however, in crowded cities, the streets are, as is nearly always
the case, save for a few favored localities, filthy, and but fitfully
cared for; when choking dust clouds must be encountered by the citizen
during the haphazard and slatternly essays at cleaning made by untrained
and irresponsible sweepers; we cannot ignore a danger from street dust
which may well incite grave apprehension. The citizen can, if he must,
run from the presence of cloud-enwrapped machines furiously whirled
along half-sprinkled pavements; he may avoid a block on which the
hand-sweepers, in the absence or in disregard of rules, ply their
nefarious brooms over unwet surfaces, because too indolent or
indifferent to sprinkle them--these things he can do if he be not
willing or ready to apply the citizen's remedy for municipal misrule.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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