Something over a hundred years ago, smallpox was one of the most fatal diseases known. It is estimated that during the eighteenth century it killed over 60,000,000 people.

Up to the time when the Spaniards invaded Mexico, there had been no smallpox there. The Spaniards brought the disease with them, and historians tell us that out of the 12,000,000 people living in Mexico at that time, at least 6,000,000 died from smallpox. At that time the disease was considered fatal throughout the world; when it broke out in a community, people fled without stopping to bury their dead. It was a rare thing to see a person not more or less disfigured by the marks the disease leaves on the face and body.

To-day we find a very different condition. There are now fewer fatalities from smallpox than from almost any other communicable disease. During 1906 and 1907 only 169 deaths from smallpox were reported from all over the United States to the Census Bureau at Washington. What has caused this marked falling off in the fatality of the disease?

During the time that smallpox was killing so many people, all the doctors were trying to find something that would cure the disease or that would prevent it. In the latter part of the eighteenth century Dr. Edward Jenner, an English physician, noticed that milkmaids did not have smallpox as much as did people of other occupations. He also noticed cows with little sores on their udders that looked very much like the sores that come with smallpox. He therefore tried making on the arms of people sores just like those on the udders of the cows. He did this by taking a little of the matter from the sores on the cows and putting it into the scratches on the people's arms. After these sores had healed, the people who had been thus treated did not have smallpox. This simple practice has caused one of the most deadly diseases known to man to become one of the most easily controlled.

Though it is well known that before the discovery of vaccination smallpox was a fatal disease, there are still some persons who say that vaccination has done nothing to reduce the mortality. When you learn some of the facts, you can judge for yourself whether or not vaccination does prevent smallpox.

During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71, the German soldiers were all vaccinated, and only a part of the French army was vaccinated. Smallpox broke out in the two armies. As a result, 6,000 of the French died from smallpox and only 278 of the Germans. In many instances, the German and the French soldiers were confined in the same hospitals, with exactly the same opportunities to contract the disease. But, you might ask, if vaccination prevents smallpox, how did it happen that there were any cases among the German soldiers? In order to prevent smallpox, vaccination must be successful; that is, it must "take." We will tell you about different kinds of vaccination a little later.

In Sweden we find strong evidence that vaccination prevents smallpox. Up to 1801, before vaccination was introduced into that country, the yearly death rate from smallpox was 2,050 out of each million of the population. In 1801 vaccination was introduced into Sweden, but the people were allowed to be vaccinated or not, just as they pleased. During the ten years ending with 1811, the annual death rate from smallpox had dropped from 2,050 per million of the population to 686 per million. Later, vaccination was made compulsory (that is, everybody in Sweden was obliged to be vaccinated), and in 1894 the death rate had dropped to only two deaths a year per million population. Is it merely a coincidence that this great falling off in deaths from smallpox came after vaccination was discovered, or was it due to vaccination?

Before the Philippine Islands were occupied by the Americans, vaccination was very little practiced, and a large percentage of the deaths in those islands was caused by smallpox. In 1897 smallpox caused about 40,000 deaths. A few years later the Americans enforced vaccination among the inhabitants of the Philippines, and the result was that in 1907 there were only 304 deaths from smallpox. There has been practically no quarantine for smallpox and no disinfection; the only cause of the suppression of the disease in the Philippine Islands is vaccination—nothing else.

In Gloucester, England, there used to be a great many people who did not believe in vaccination, though it is doubtful if they themselves could have explained why they did not. They seem to have been much like the man who, when asked, "What do you think of this?" replied, "I don't know anything about it, but I am against it." In 1890 Gloucester had a population of 42,000 people, most of whom had never been vaccinated. In the latter part of 1895, smallpox broke out. Quarantine was strictly carried out, but the disease continued to spread. As the people saw the number of victims rapidly increasing, many of them concluded that they had rather be vaccinated than have smallpox, even though they did not really believe in vaccination. By the first of April, 1896, over 36,000 people had been vaccinated in Gloucester, and by the first of August there was not a case of smallpox in the city. But what had happened in the meantime? There had been 1,979 cases of smallpox; a very large amount of money had been expended in quarantining; hundreds of persons had been disfigured for life; and 439 lives had been lost. And all this simply because the people did not believe in vaccination.

Quarantining smallpox is a most expensive luxury, which may possibly retard the progress of this disease, but was never known to check an epidemic of it. Every epidemic of smallpox during the last one hundred years has been checked by vaccination.

There are certain diseases which you are not likely to have more than once; one attack protects against another. Why and how does one attack of a certain disease protect against another? When a person is taken sick with one of these diseases, the cells of his body immediately begin to make a substance called antitoxin. We learned something about antitoxin when we were studying diphtheria. In diseases like scarlet fever, measles, and smallpox, in which one attack protects against another, the antitoxin that is formed in the body when you are sick stays there for a long time, in some cases as long as you live. While this antitoxin is present in the blood, the cause of the disease cannot live in the body; hence you cannot have the disease again. After some diseases this antitoxin seems to disappear from the blood in a short time; after others, it seems to remain for several years; and after still others it remains as long as you live. After diphtheria it stays in the blood only a short time, so that one may have diphtheria a second time within a few years. Some people have smallpox, measles, or scarlet fever a second time, but with most people these diseases never return.

If we knew how to make the cells of our bodies produce this antitoxin and keep it stored up in the blood all the time, we should never have any of these diseases. But in many cases we do not know how to cause the cells to manufacture this antitoxin. However, in one or two diseases we do know how to persuade them to make the antitoxin, and the one in which we know how to accomplish this best is smallpox. This is just what is done by vaccination.

The object of vaccination is to put the cells of the body to work making antitoxin. To do this, it is necessary to get some of the toxin into the body. We want to get in just enough to make the cells work, and no more. Therefore we make a very small scratch, and put into it some of the vaccine which contains the toxin of smallpox. It is impossible to have these germs in your body and not be affected by them to some degree. If you did not feel a little sick, the cells would not be making antitoxin, for the thing that makes you sick is what makes the cells go to work. But this sickness is only a matter of a day or two, and after the cells have made the antitoxin, it will stay in your body a long time, longer in some cases than in others.

Some people, after they have once been vaccinated, can never be successfully vaccinated again; neither can such people ever have smallpox. Most people, however, can be successfully vaccinated every five to seven years, and there are a few people who will "take" if vaccinated every year or two. These conditions indicate the length of time that the antitoxin of smallpox will live in the bodies of these different persons. If vaccination, properly performed, does not take, the person is not in a condition at that time to catch smallpox; and if vaccination, properly performed, does take, it is positive evidence that if this person had been exposed to smallpox, he would have taken the disease.

It is frequently asked, "How long will vaccination protect against smallpox?" You can no more answer this question than you can tell how long the antitoxin will live in the blood of any particular person. The only safe thing to do is to be vaccinated every few years, and if smallpox is present in your community, get vaccinated every year until the vaccination takes. If it takes, it shows that you were in a condition to catch the disease; and if it does not take, you may feel safe from smallpox for a while, at least.

CHAPTER XXX

WHY VACCINATION SOMETIMES SEEMS A FAILURE

How does it happen that those who have been recently vaccinated sometimes have smallpox? It is successful vaccination that prevents smallpox, not recent vaccination; there is a vast difference between the two. A successful vaccination is one that results in a sore identical with the sores of smallpox. Such a sore is secured only as a result of the action of the germs that cause smallpox.

If the arm is red from the shoulder to the wrist and so swollen that you cannot use it for weeks, it does not necessarily mean that you have had a successful vaccination.

Such arms are not the result of vaccination itself, any more than a railroad wreck is the result of the fact that there is steam in the engine. The railroad wreck is caused by carelessness on the part of some operator, and the badly inflamed and swollen arm is due to lack of care or knowledge on the part of the vaccinator or the person vaccinated.

A fly blister is not a successful vaccination. Such a statement may not seem necessary, until you hear this story. A man showed a sore on his arm, asserting that it was a successful vaccination. He was told that it was nothing but the result of a blister, and not vaccination, and that the work had been done by putting a small bit of blistering plaster on his arm. He admitted this to be the fact, and said that the "doctor" who did it told him that it was a new way of vaccinating. The doctors who say that vaccination will not prevent smallpox belong to the class who use fly blisters and call them vaccinations. When the patient gets smallpox, those who are opposed to vaccinations say that here is an illustration of their claim that vaccination will not prevent smallpox.

Some people who honestly think they were vaccinated have smallpox. There are sometimes instances in which a person recently vaccinated with apparent success nevertheless contracts smallpox; there are still other cases in which the disease develops after a vaccination that would not take. Here is an example:

A doctor vaccinates a child in the usual manner. At the end of four or five days, the dressing is taken from the arm, and the only thing to be seen is a little black scab. The child scratches this off. In a few days the spot becomes red and a small abscess forms, resembling a smallpox sore. Naturally, this is taken for a completely successful vaccination, but it is not really so. When the child scratched off the scab, the vaccination wound was nearly healed, and the little abscess was caused by some very mild pus germs, which were under the finger nails with which he scratched the wound. The abscess was in no wise connected with the vaccination, but was simply such an infection as a child might get at any time that he scratched his arm. No one has ever claimed that such an abscess will prevent smallpox any more than that a boil will prevent it.

A successful vaccination will prevent smallpox. The length of time for which it will prevent the disease varies in different individuals. Some it will protect only for a year or two, while in others it will last through life.

Dr. H. W. Bond, Health Commissioner of St. Louis, Missouri, states:

"The experience of this department, based on the observation of thousands of cases, is that a well-pitted mark gives at least ten years' immunity. We have never seen a case of smallpox in a person with a well-pitted scar less than ten years old—that is, the scar less than ten years old."

One of the strongest objections made against vaccination is that the arm sometimes becomes very sore from it. This is true, but the sore arm is not a common occurrence and is never caused by vaccination properly performed. There is always some cause for the bad arm besides the vaccination.

The usual cause of a bad arm is improper vaccination; this means the lack of proper precautions on the part of the person who does the vaccinating. Years ago, before vaccination was performed with the great care which is given it to-day, bad arms could not be prevented; but to-day the cause of the trouble is not the vaccine, but the vaccinator. Sometimes a father thinks he will save a dollar by vaccinating his child himself, and he is likely to injure the child by attempting to vaccinate him without taking antiseptic precautions. The same surgical preparations must be made for a vaccination as for an operation. If this is not done, a bad arm will result, not because of the vaccination, but because of the negligence of the vaccinator.

Never allow any person, doctor or otherwise, to vaccinate you until the skin surface has been well washed with soap and water, rinsed clean, and wiped off with alcohol. See that the vaccine is fresh and has been properly kept. When it begins to "take," keep the spot absolutely clean and covered with a clean cloth, renewed daily. Never scratch or rub it. These precautions will prevent the dreaded soreness of the arm.

The person operated on is himself often responsible for the bad arm. A careful doctor will put a dressing on the arm, after he has supplied the vaccine, and will tell you to let that dressing alone, for he wishes to take it off himself. About the third or fourth day after the vaccination, your arm begins to itch. Possibly you have forgotten what the doctor told you; at any rate, you pay no attention to directions and take the dressing off to scratch the arm. When you scratch the wound, you introduce pus germs into it, and you have no reason to expect anything but a sore arm. In this case, it is not the fault of the vaccinator or of the vaccination; it is your own fault. Never touch a vaccination sore; in fact, it is dangerous to touch any sore.

CHAPTER XXXI

CONSUMPTION, THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE

Tuberculosis, or consumption, has been known for many centuries. It was known long before Rome was ever heard of. Hippocrates, a Greek physician, studied it, and said that if it were treated in its early stages, it could be cured.

Tuberculosis is called the Great White Plague. It is called the Great Plague, because it kills more people than does any other one disease; the White Plague, because people who suffer from it become so pale and white.

It is estimated that nearly 200,000 people die from tuberculosis every year in the United States. This means that in this country there is one death from consumption every two minutes and thirty-six seconds. Is it not fearful to think of nearly 200,000 people dying every year, in the United States alone, from a disease that we know can be prevented? Do you not think that we ought to do everything we can to prevent this disease from spreading?

During the Civil War 205,070 soldiers were killed in both armies. This war lasted four years. During the same length of time there were 640,000 deaths from tuberculosis in the United States. This means that consumption killed over three times as many people as were killed during the same length of time in the Civil War. In some parts of the country one out of every seven deaths is caused by this disease, but the average throughout the country is one death out of every ten.

There are more than 700,000 people sick from tuberculosis every year in the United States alone. Of this number nearly 200,000 die every year. Tuberculosis is a disease that can be prevented. It may take a long time to get rid of it, but it can be abolished. When you think of all the people that are sick from tuberculosis, and of all those who die from it every year, you will surely want to do all you can to help prevent this suffering and death.

When people speak of consumption they usually mean tuberculosis of the lungs; but tuberculosis is not confined to the lungs. The germs that cause tuberculosis may attack any part of the body, and from one part may go to other parts, setting up a growth wherever they go.

Tuberculosis of the throat is a common form of the disease. When the germs of tuberculosis settle in the throat, they destroy the tissues very rapidly and, as a rule, kill the patient much more quickly than they do when they start in the lungs.

Another frequent form of tuberculosis in occurs in the knee; this is popularly called "white swelling." It quickly destroys the knee joint and results in a stiff leg. The growth may stop there, but more often it extends from the knee to other parts of the body.

Often we see a little boy or girl wearing one shoe with a sole much thicker than the other. This is because one leg is shorter than the other, and we notice that the shortened leg is deformed as well. This condition sometimes results from an injury, but it is far more likely to be caused by tuberculosis of the hip joint.

Again we see boys and girls with diseases of the spine, so that they have "hunch backs" or are twisted to one side. These conditions result from tuberculosis of the bones of the spine.

Sometimes we see children and grown people with swellings on their necks. These swellings may look smooth, but they feel as if they were made up of little bunches of grapes or plums under the skin. They are almost always due to the growth of the germs that cause tuberculosis of the little glands of the neck.

Any one of the other glands of the body is just as liable to become affected by tuberculosis as are the glands of the neck. Tuberculosis of the stomach or bowels is not at all uncommon.

The germs of tuberculosis are likely to attack any of the tissues of the body, especially if the cells composing these tissues are for any reason weakened so that they cannot do the work required of them. When the tuberculosis germs grow in tissues, the tissues finally break down and an abscess forms. A tubercular abscess is sometimes called a "cold abscess."

All such abscesses finally break and an open sore results. The matter that comes from the open sore and from the abscess when it is first opened is full of the germs that cause tuberculosis. If this matter is allowed to become dry, the germs are blown about in the dust. Then other people may inhale them or take them into their bodies through the mouth or skin and thus contract consumption.

Until a few years ago it was generally believed that consumption was inherited. That is, it was thought that children whose father or mother had consumption were born with the disease. Even to-day many people hold to this idea, because they have not studied or learned of the discoveries made in recent years. These people still believe that if a child's father or mother dies of tuberculosis, the child will die of tuberculosis, too, no matter how careful he may be or how much of a fight he may make against it.

It is true that many people whose parents have died of consumption also die from this disease; but this does not prove that they were born with consumption. It merely shows that they had a good chance to catch the disease by being continually with some one who had it. It is also true that a great many people die from consumption whose parents did not have it. If consumption is an inherited disease, where did these people get it?

About thirty years ago, Dr. Robert Koch discovered that all consumptives have in their sputum a long, slender germ which he called the tubercle bacillus. Some of these germs he injected into guinea pigs, and he found that they caused the pigs to have consumption. Then he made many other experiments, and proved beyond question that it is this very germ that causes tuberculosis, and that no one has consumption unless he has this germ in his body.

Then the question arose, "Is the baby whose parents have consumption born with this germ in its body?" This question could not at first be answered; but tests were made by taking the children of consumptive parents away from their parents, and keeping them in homes where there were no consumptives. It was found that these babies did not develop the disease. From these and many other tests, it has been proved that consumption is not inherited, and that the reason the child of the consumptive so often has consumption is because he lives with people having the disease.

Consumption seems to be confined to certain families, and this has led many people to think that the disease is inherited, regardless of the proof that it is not. When we carefully study the facts in various cases, we find that the disease is not confined to a certain family, so much as it is to the house in which the family lives.

The record of a single house will illustrate how tuberculosis sticks to the house rather than to the family. From 1880 to 1901, a particular house was occupied by a father, mother, and six children, of whom four died of consumption. From 1902 to 1903 the house was occupied by another father and mother with eight children. They moved away because of the great amount of sickness in the family. At present this father and one of his children have tuberculosis. In 1904 the house was occupied by still another family, consisting likewise of a father, mother, and eight children. Now it is known that four of the children have tuberculosis, and it is feared that three others have also contracted the disease. In 1905 a son of the first occupant, with his wife and two children, returned to live in the house. The father of this family died of tuberculosis. Up to 1906 the total results from this house, scattered through four families, were as follows: five deaths, six cases in people still living, and three suspected cases.

When the consumptive coughs, he sends fine droplets of moisture into the air. These droplets contain the germs that cause tuberculosis. The moisture evaporates and the germs are left sticking to the floors, the walls, the curtains, and the furniture of the room. When the room is swept or dusted, the germs are stirred up with the dust and people inhale them. The germ that causes consumption will live for a long time in a house; you cannot see it, but it is there. Wherever a consumptive has lived, he has left the germs of this disease behind him.

If a house in which a consumptive has lived is thoroughly disinfected, all the germs he left there will be killed. Scattering disinfectants about a room does no good. The only proper way to disinfect is to close the house, for if the disinfectant is strong enough to kill the disease germs, no human being can stay in the house while it is being used. Disinfecting should be done by the health officer, because he knows how much disinfectant is needed to kill every germ in the house and how it should be used.

Sometimes you will see an advertisement saying that certain disinfectants will kill the germs of disease but will not affect the people. Always remember that any disinfectant that is strong enough to kill the disease germs will also kill human beings, and do not be fooled by such advertisements.

Never move into a house that has been previously occupied, until the house has been disinfected. Do not take it for granted that the people who lived there before had no communicable disease. Do not take the word of the agent or of any one else that there has never been sickness in the house. People sometimes have tuberculosis without knowing it; people sometimes have tuberculosis or other communicable diseases without telling of it.

It does not cost much to disinfect a house, and if the disinfection is properly done the disease germs will be killed. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Try to convince your father that by having the new home disinfected he may save not only doctor's fees, but perhaps the lives of himself and his family.

There are a great many things that boys and girls can do to help fight this disease. This "scourge" can be wiped out; but if the boys and girls do not help in this great work, it will never be done.

CHAPTER XXXII

HOW CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD AND HOW PREVENTED

The sputum (spit) of the consumptive and the discharges from tubercular sores contain the germs that cause tuberculosis. Sometimes these germs are so numerous that thousands of them would be found clinging to the point of a needle dipped into the sputum or discharges from a patient. When the consumptive coughs, he sends into the air many of the germs that cause tuberculosis.

We cannot kill the germs while they are in the body of the consumptive; but we can kill them after they have left the body, by seeing that none of the sputum or discharge from tubercular wounds or sores is allowed to become dried and blown about as dust.

When the discharge from a tubercular sore becomes dried and blows about with the dust, the germs are inhaled into the lungs of other people, or fall into other sores and cause them to become tubercular. Since this is one of the most frequent ways by which this dread disease is spread, you will say at once, "Why, every particle of matter from a tubercular sore ought to be burned, so that there would be no possibility of the germs being scattered." This of course ought to be done, but this is not enough.

People sometimes have consumption and are not aware that they have it. Others may have tubercular sores and not know them to be such. Any sore, whether it is tubercular or not, contains disease germs. They may not be the germs of tuberculosis, but even the least dangerous of them is the germ that causes pus (matter).

Since we are trying to get rid not only of the germs that cause tuberculosis, but also of the germs that cause all communicable diseases, it would be better to say, "All discharges from any sore should be burned immediately."

When people spit on the sidewalk or on the floor, the sputum will of course become dry. Sometimes a lady drags her dress through the sputum on the sidewalk or on the floor; it sticks to her dress and she takes the germs home with her. The sputum of the consumptive is loaded with the germs that cause tuberculosis, and if this sputum is allowed to be blown about with the dust, people will inhale it and thus get the germs into their lungs. Certainly the consumptive should never spit on the sidewalk or on the floor, or in the mine, workshop, or in any place where the sputum may become dry and form dust. Of course he should not fill the air about him with germs by coughing into it; everybody knows that.

But no man or woman, boy or girl, should ever spit on the floor or sidewalk. In the first place it is bad manners. No person does this who is well brought up. In the second place, we must remember that the consumptive does not like to have others know that he has consumption; this feeling is a part of the disease. If you expect the consumptive to refrain from spitting on the floor or sidewalk, you must help him by your example. You cannot expect him to be the only one to hunt up a cuspidor, when you yourself are spitting on floor or sidewalk. If you expect the consumptive to take the precaution necessary to protect you from this disease, you must take the same precaution yourself.

In the matter of coughing, the same rules hold true. If you expect the consumptive to hold a handkerchief before his mouth when he coughs, you must do the same.

Since it is not right that the consumptive should spit on the floor or sidewalk, it will naturally be asked, "What is the consumptive to do with what he coughs up?"

At a very small cost he can buy paper napkins and envelopes which have been treated with paraffin to prevent moisture going through them. If every one with a cough or with any such trouble as catarrh, which makes him want to spit frequently, would carry a supply of these paper napkins and paraffin envelopes, he would always have a suitable place in which to spit. When you cough up anything, spit into one of these little napkins, put the napkin into the envelope, and when you get home burn the whole thing.

There are other conveniences which can easily be carried in the pocket, called pocket cuspidors. Some are made of thin cardboard, treated with paraffin, and filled with cotton to hold all the moisture of the sputum; others are made of glass, shaped like a bottle, with a wide mouth. Those made of cardboard should be burned as soon as possible and the glass ones should be thoroughly washed with boiling water.

In some cities cuspidors have been placed at the edge of the sidewalk in an effort to lessen the spread of disease caused by spitting. These cuspidors have a stream of water running through them constantly and are connected with the sewer. They are so made that they cannot easily be kicked over or upset, and they are placed on stands just high enough to make it easy to spit into them. If properly made, they are not unsightly. Would it not be a good thing if your town would put such cuspidors on your streets, and if the merchants would put them into their stores? Every office, every workshop, every store, every railway and street car should be provided with cuspidors.

We know that the substance which people cough up when they have consumption contains the germs that cause this disease. When they spit this matter out, many of the germs stick to the lips. This is true not only of consumption, but of the germs of other diseases, such as diphtheria, measles, and scarlet fever.

When there are disease germs on the lips, it is impossible for a person to drink and not leave some of the germs sticking to the edge of the cup or glass. If the germs of disease are in the mouth, every time that the person suffering from this disease drinks from a cup, he leaves some of the germs on the edge of it. The next person to drink from that cup may get the germs into his mouth.

Always avoid drinking from a cup or glass from which another person has been drinking. You can never tell who may have disease germs in his mouth, or when you may get them on your lips by drinking from the same cup. Each individual should have his own cup and should never let any one else drink from it.

When you put the point of your pencil into your mouth, you will leave germs on it just as you do on the edge of a cup when you drink. Never put your pencil into your mouth; never use any other person's pencil; never trade pencils.

Sometimes we see a child giving his friends a bite of his apple or candy or cake. Of course when disease germs are in the mouth of the one who takes a bite, the germs will be left on the apple, candy, or cake. By no means should a boy or girl be selfish, but if you have something to share with your friends, break it or cut it into pieces. Never take into your mouth anything from which another person has taken a bite.

Milk that comes from consumptive cows may contain the germs that cause tuberculosis. When you drink the milk from such cows, you take these germs into your body. They find their way from the stomach and intestine into the blood, and there they travel about until they find a spot where the cells are dead or are not doing their work properly. When they find such a place, they settle down and begin to grow; and the first thing you know, you will have tuberculosis in that part of your body. Sometimes the germs do not have to go out of the stomach or intestines to find a favorable opportunity to take hold and grow. When this happens, we have consumption of the bowels.

One cannot tell by looking at milk or by tasting it whether or not the germs of tuberculosis are present. They do not make the milk sour; neither do they make it look different from pure milk.

One cannot tell by looking at a cow whether or not she has tuberculosis. Sometimes a cow will have tuberculosis and yet look very healthy. There is, however, a way by which we can tell when a cow has this disease, no matter how healthy she may look. This is what is known as the tuberculin test.

If a little tuberculin is injected under the skin of a cow that has tuberculosis, it will make her have a fever and appear sick for a day or two. If she is free from tuberculosis, it will not make her sick at all.

It would seem as if all people who sell milk would want to know whether their cows have consumption so as not to run any risk of conveying the disease to their customers. Some of them do take this precaution, but a great many of them do not want to go to this trouble. Sometimes you will hear them say, "Oh, I do not believe in this tuberculin test." They do not want to believe in it because they know that the cows, if tested and found to have tuberculosis, will have to be killed.

The reason that dairymen sell us milk from tubercular cows is the same that makes the man with scarlet fever in his house fail to tell the health officer about it; the same that makes the butcher buy and sell meat from diseased cattle; the same that makes some people absolutely regardless of the welfare of others—it is selfishness.

CHAPTER XXXIII

HOW CONSUMPTION IS CURED