State control of tuberculosis.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State control of tuberculosis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    rooms, shops, stores, halls, i-ailway stations, churciies, sehoolhouses, and other })Lil)lie places. Some of the rules go further still, and forhid the spitting upon the sidewalk, as in Cincinnati, Cambridge, Colorado Springs, l^rookline. Providence, Springfield, and Rochester. The following is the rule in Cambridge, and perhaps is as explicit as any : Cambridoe ; Rules of the Board of Health, April 12, 1S99 : The Board of Health hereby adjudoes that spitting upon the floor, platform, or any other part of a public conveyance ; upon the floor, steps, or stairs of any public building, hall, church, rail- way station, or sho]>: upon the sidewalk of any street, court or passageway; or ui)on the patlnvay of any park, square, or com- mon is a nuisance, source of Hlth and cause of sickness, and pro- hibits spitting in any and all such places. Many of the rules require tliat copies of the rule shall be conspicuously hung in public conveyances and other public places. Most of the transportation com- panies are very ready to do this, and have welcomed the law, and have tried to enforce it. Cases have Ijeen brought for violation of these rules, and it is said that the courts have sustained them. It requires a good deal of effort, however, on the part of the police, to secure any permanency in this reform. It is, perhaps, questionable whether rules of this kind can be enac^ted as necessary for the preservation of ])ublic health, but, fortunately, it is not necessary to prove the exact i-(jle played by promiscuous spitting in the production of tuberculosis to enact such legislation. Promiscuous spitting is a nuisance and may be sup- pressed on that score alone, thus enabling us to try a very practical experiment as to the importance of one alleged means of spreading tuberculosis.