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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    The surest way to prevent expectoration in ])laces where it may be dangerous is to keep consumptives out of such phices. It is dou))tless for this reason that Pennsylvania has passed a hiw forbidding tlie employ- ment ])y bakers of persons having consumption, and the sanitary code of Yonkers makes it a misdemeanor for leakers or market-men to pursue their occupation if they have this disease. Very little lias Ijeen done Ijy any municipality to control expectoration by regulating the conduct of the individual. In New York City, wdien a case of con- sumption is reported to the board of health, unless the attendant physician recjuests otherwise, an inspector is sent to the home of the patient and gives verljal direc- tions how to dispose of tlie sputum without danger to others. Subsequent visits are made to see that these directions are carried out, and it is claimed that they are in about one-half of the cases. Doubtless, all over the land, educated physicians in private practice and in charge of institutions, have done much to teach patients in regard to this matter, and prol)a])ly have accomplished far more than have the health officials. Disinfection. Experiments have shown that it is ([uite possible that the apartment occupied by a consumptive patient may become infected with the germs of the disease. Scrapings have Ijeen taken from the Avails and furni- ture of such apartments, and have Ijeen found to contain bacilli. There is not, however, much clinical eA'idence that such apartments may be the cause of spreading the disease. The investigations of Flick, in Philadelphia, and of the board of health in New York