INFECTION, lie introduction of .
producing micro-organisms in the body. Infec tion inay result in a number of different ways: Micro-organisms may be introduced by means of direct, injury. When a person falls and cuts the' hand, the bacteria of pus-production of tetanus, may be so introduced, and blood poisoning or tetanus may develop. -Many infect tions come by means of the intestinal tract: Thus typhoid is commonly, obtained from ipilk or drinking-water.' The' intestinal worms, 'tape Yirgrm, cRintlynrnkt are contracted, rpn ner, and a number of other parasites, p,arttcuy larly the trichina, "nay come from infected,(o6d taken info the alimentary canal. Infectibu imaY also occur by means of the air-passages. Tht bacillus of tuberculosis is most often taken'into the body in this way, and, suitable soil; it, causes the development f the dread disease. The bubonic plague is frequently contracted 'through the disease-germ entering the air-pall sages. 'At the present time it is deemed 'not 'unlikely that a number of infectious disease% diphtheria, scarlet feVer,- me sles, whooping-cough, are 'contracted through the respiratory tract by infection 'with the eiti: citing' cause. Occasionally direct contact seems necessary for infIction, as iti and syp In malaria, and probably in yellow fever, the active agent that causes the disease is introduced into the body by the bite of an insect, the mosquito. In malaria one particular
genus (Anopheles) serves as an intermediate host in the developmental history of the para site, in a manner analogous to the history of the development of a number of the intestinal worms. It is not unlikely that a large number of diseases may be disseminated by the bites of insects of one kind or another. In all the infectious diseases the element of a real, live, and active contagion should never be overlooked. Infectious diseases do not spring out of nothing. There must be some sort of contact in order that a person become infected. A most impor tant part of the treatment of all infectious diseases is the protection of other people by proper care of all one's own excretions during sickness. The doctrine so frequently taught by some that sickness is ignorance is an important half-truth. But for the ignorance of people concerning the proper care of those afflicted with infectious diseases with reference to the protection of others, measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping-cough, typhoid fever, consump tion, and a number of other maladies would be entirely eradicated from civilized communities.