OCR Text |
Show HOW DISEASES ARE "CAUGHT." In this scientific age, people still labor under thd delusion that Infectious diseases are transmitted by, contact with things. Some people are afraid to touch a car strap or a book that has been used by, 9 strangers, and, much as they like to have it, handle - paper money with great caution. In tho Medical VM Record for October, Dr. Alvah H. Doty, formerly the - efficient health officer of the port of New York, 9 shows how foolish the public Is in Its fear that In fectlon lurks everywhere, in public conveyances, pub- 11c assemblages, clothing, money, rags, books, car straps, etc., and that diseases are conveyed by these means. If disease were conveyed in this manner old rags would be one of the best transmitters. To test this theory one should go to tho rag houses of Alex- andrla, Egypt The rags brought here are the cast- p off clothing of natives, largely from Interior dls- trlcts, where some form of Infectious disease almost always exists. Yet the British sanitary oflicers have never found the slightest evidence that any of tho women and children employed wore Infected. The best test of the theory that disease is trans j9 mltted through paper money would be, not in Its ordinary use, but In the treasury department at Washington, whore clerks are constantly handling an enormous amount of old and filthy money prior to Its destruction. Yet this has never produced dls-ease dls-ease among the clerks. No one cares to read dirty books, but the fear of infection through the much-used much-used books of a public library is quite as groundless as that regarding money. Frances Frear in Leslie's |