The following detailed rules will be found useful, both to the consumptive and to his friends:—
1.—Expectoration indoors should be received into small paper bags and afterwards burnt.
2.—Expectoration out of doors should be received into a suitable bottle, to be afterwards washed out with boiling water; or into a small paper handkerchief, which is afterwards burnt.
3.—If ordinary handkerchiefs are ever used for expectoration, they should be put into boiling water before they have time to become dry; or into a solution of a disinfectant, as directed by the doctor.
4.—Wet cleansing of rooms, particularly of bedrooms occupied by sick persons, should be substituted for “dusting” and sweeping.
5.—Sunlight and fresh air are the greatest enemies of infection. Every patient should sleep with his bedroom window open top and bottom, a screen being arranged, if necessary, to prevent direct draught; and, if possible, occupy a separate bedroom. The patient need not fear going out of doors in any weather, if warmly clad.
N.B.—The patient himself is the greatest gainer by the above precautions, as his recovery is retarded and frequently prevented by renewed infection derived from his own expectoration.
6.—Persons in good health have little reason to fear the infection of consumption. Over-fatigue, intemperance, bad air, dusty occupations, and dirty rooms favour consumption.
The most common source of infection is undoubtedly the dried expectoration. Infection may, however, probably be derived from infected food, as milk or meat.
The danger from meat is much less than that from milk, because the former is more generally cooked than the latter, and because the diseased portions of the former would be at least partially removed before it was sold. The conditions under which the meat derived from tuberculous cattle should be destroyed are given on page [24]. The abolition of private slaughter-houses, the general establishment of public abattoirs, and efficient meat inspection would do much towards aiding in eliminating tuberculous cattle from herds; because it would no longer be found remunerative to keep tuberculous cows until they become seriously diseased.