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Prevention of Communicable Disease: Yellow
If the precautions herein detailed were properly carried out everywhere for even a few months, malaria would practically cease to exist. Nor could it recur in any locality until individuals suffering from the disease imported it from other places. case Yellow Fever. - Yellow fever like malaria can be communicated to man only by the bites of mosquitoes, in this this case the Stegomyia Calopus variety. From the standpoint of preventive medicine the procedure indicated for the two diseases is entirely similar.
TUBERCULOSIS OR CONSUMPTION A nation-wide campaign has been set on foot for the extermination of consumption - often called "The Great White Plague" - the ravages of which justify the characterization of this disease as "the captain of the men of death." Several voluntary associations are engaged in this campaign and a number of the great insurance companies are giving their active co-operation. The following is a summary of the latest scientific information upon this subject prepared under the supervision of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York:
Its Nature. - This disease, known also as "phthisis," is caused by a PREVENTION OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASE 161 living germ, called the "bacillus tuberculosis," which multiplies with great rapidity. The germ is called "bacillus" because it resembles a little rod, this being the meaning of the word "bacillus." A picture of these germs, much magnified, is shown on another page.
Outside of the human body, the germ may live in warm, moist, dark places for a long time. By direct sunlight the germ is killed in a few hours, in a few days by ordinary daylight, and immediately by boiling whole communities. Nearly everybody at some period of his life breathes in the living germs of the disease, but owing to the power of resistance of a healthy body they are not able to multiply. If they do not immediately die they produce little lumps called "tubercles," from which comes the name "tuberculosis." If these form in the lungs, they continue to grow, soften, break open, and are eventually expelled by coughing or otherwise. For this reason, the sputum, or "spit," of an individ- GIVE US A BITE CONSUMPTIVE SPITTING ON FLOOR. THE SPIT DRIES AND CARELESS FLIES FEEDING ON IT, CARRY THE SWEEPING, DUSTING OR DRAUGHTS GERMS OF THE DISEASE TO FOOD. CAUSE THE GERMS TO FLOAT IN THE AIR. -THE GERMS MAY ENTER THE BODIES OF CHILDREN PLAYING ON THE FLOOR, THROUGH SORE SWE WOUNDS.