The Laws of health.

Nabarro, David, 1874-

Date:: 1905

Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Laws of health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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ing of food cannot be properly carried on. The salivary glands will also have too much work to do in continually making up for the saliva which is wasted. Some smokers spit a great deal when smoking and in that way waste large quantities of saliva every day. When smokers do this it shows that so much smoking is not good for them. They should therefore smoke less, and if they still spit they ought to smoke very little or not at all. Chew- ing tobacco is an objectionable habit which is not so common as it used to be. It should be avoided because it wastes much saliva and also discolours the teeth. 125. Spitting is a very dirty as well as a very dangerous habit. You need not be told how filthy and rude it is to spit about rooms, streets, trains, trams, and omnibuses. One sometimes sees people outside omnibuses spit into the road right on to people passing in the streets. Then, if it is at all windy, the passengers sitting just behind on the to]) of the omnibus may get some of the particles of saliva in their faces. This, of course, is disgusting but also very dangerous. All kinds of germs are present in the mouths of people, and diseases such as diphtheria, influenza, inflammation of the lungs, and consumption may be spread in this way through people spitting. The waste of saliva by spitting is not the same as the getting rid of phlegm in certain diseases of the lungs and bronchial tubes. 126. Consumption of the lungs is a very terrible disease, killing thousands of people every year in England alone. It is due to a small microbe which gets into the lungs and gradually destroys them. During the illness patients bring up from the lungs a

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