It is not only a habit that is nasty to other people, but it is dangerous as well, for the following reason;
So many men are suffering from consumption or disease of the lungs even without knowing it. When they spit they throw out a number of tiny "germs," which, although too small to be seen, get into the air and are very easily breathed in again by other passers-by; and these germs contain the seeds of the disease, which are thus sown in healthy people, and make them "consumptives" also.
Unhappily people are rather fond of spitting in railway carriages. A man doing this was fined ten shillings and two guineas costs not long since.
His excuse was that he had a bad cough.
Any Scout could have told him, apart from the dirty, disgusting part of the habit, how very dangerous to other passengers it is for a person with a bad cough to indulge in this habit.
Little living seeds of disease are in this way let loose to get into other people's throats and lungs, and possibly to bring them illness and death.
* * * * *
THE WAR AGAINST CONSUMPTION.
Sixty thousand people die every year of consumption in Great Britain.
One death in every eight is from consumption.