Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men.
- Date:
- [1911?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Modern medical opinions on alcohol : being a series of lectures delivered by well-known medical men. Source: Wellcome Collection.
41/160 page 31
![Now we must dismiss absolutely from our minds the old error that this is a hereditary disease. Every case of tuberculosis has had its origin in personal infection, and one of the greatest problems for those who love children is to protect them from this awful and common infection. So far as medical science is concerned, the factors of the ])roblem are known. In general there is required extensive exposure to infection in the first place, and susceptibility to it in the second place. Infection in the Public-House. It is now generally admitted by those who know that the most potent factor in the spread of consumption is the ])ublic-house. In all probability at least one half of all eases of consumption are due to infection in the public- house. The public-house is regularly frequented by consumptives. It is an easy matter to demonstrate the existence of virulent tubercle bacilli in the sweepings frOm the public-house floor. Nowhere else can they be so con- iitantly and abundantly demonstrated. It is a safe pro- position that everyone who enters a public-house is entering n plague spot, for tuberculosis is the greatest plague of our day. The consumptives who regulaifly frequent these places expectorate millions of living and acting bacilli, and these are most abundant on the floor. Now, children under one year of age do not sufier to any extent from consumption, and the reason seems to be in large measure that they are not exposed to the infection. But observation has shown that the occurrence of tuber- culosis in many forms coincides with the crawling period. The child that crawls on the public-house floor or the small child that Avalks upon it is in grave danger. The nearer the mouth and nose are to the floor, more likely is infection to occur. For that matter, the taller a man is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28052808_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
