Sixty thousand people die every year of consumption in Great Britain.
One death in every eight is from consumption.
Two hundred and fifty thousand people, or one in every two hundred,
have the disease in them.
Consumption is caught through carelessness or ignorance, by breathing
the germs, or in drinking them in milk.
The following are a few simple rules which, if followed, should help
to prevent you from getting it:
1. Live much in the open air.
2. Sleep with the window open.
3. Breathe through the nose.
4. If you drink milk, be sure that it is pure.
5. Keep your blood healthy with exercise, good and plain food.
6. Keep your home clean and well ventilated.
7. Never neglect a cold.
Here are some pictures showing how people get the germs of consumption
into them unless they are very careful.
A large number of cows have the germs or seeds of consumption in them,
and they give out these germs in their milk. So milk ought to be
"sterilised," that is to say, it should be made so hot that the germs
are killed before it is drunk.
[Illustration: DO NOT DRINK MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW, AS A GREAT
NUMBER OF THESE ANIMALS HAVE THE GERMS OF CONSUMPTION IN THEM.]
Then a large number of people have the consumption germs in them,
although they may not yet be ill with it. They will get ill sooner or
later, and they give out germs whenever they cough or spit.
[Illustration: HOW CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD.
A man spits and the germs rise. They try a boy who breathes through
the nose, but get thrown out again. Then they try another boy who
breathes through his open mouth, and so they get into his lungs.]
These germs get blown about in the air with the dust, and get into
other people's mouths, and so into their lungs--that is, if the other
people go about with their mouths partly open. If they breathe through
their nose only, as I hope all Scouts do, there is less chance of the
germs getting into the lungs, as they get caught in the sticky liquid
in the nostrils, and get driven out again when you blow your nose.
It is the same with other diseases besides consumption.
The Missioner Scout can safely go about among people who are ill with
colds, measles, and other sicknesses, if he breathes only through his
nose. All illnesses that are "catching" are spread by germs flying
from one person to another.
The consumptive germs get into you and go for your lungs, which are
big sponges inside you, through which your blood gets the air, which
is necessary to keep it healthy. Consumption germs "consume" your
lungs.
The nasty little germ of disease thrives in dirt, and dark and muggy
_air_, and so he grips even the healthiest people in rooms that
are dark and dirty, and where the windows are not kept open.
Fresh air, sunlight, and cleanliness kill the germs.
Now that you know what consumption is, you will be doing a good turn
to get other people to understand it.
I _want_ every _Scout who reads this to show the pictures to at
least five other people, AND EXPLAIN them. He may thus save lives._