Note 37 — Chapter VIII · Respiration.

“Consumption is a disease which can be taken from others, and is not simply caused by colds. A cold may make it easier to take the disease. It is usually caused by germs which enter the body with the air breathed. The matter which consumptives cough or spit up contains these germs in great numbers—frequently millions are discharged in a single day. This matter spit upon the floor, wall, or elsewhere is apt to dry, become pulverized, and float in the air as dust. The dust contains the germs, and thus they enter the body with the air breathed. The breath of a consumptive does not contain the germs and will not produce the disease. A well person catches the disease from a consumptive only by in some way taking in the matter coughed up by the consumptive.”—Extract from a circular issued by the Board of Health of New York City.