EXPECTORATION. The act of spitting; also the sputum, which is the Latin name for the mucus or other secretion discharged from the air passages. The examination of expectoration is of the utmost value in the diagnosis of diseases of the chest. Often the nature of an ailment can be determined or the diagnosis confirmed by the examination of the expectoration. In simple bronchitis the sputum is frothy and colorless, and floats on water. In chronic bronchitis it is generally yellowish or greenish, and, owing to an admixture of pus, it sinks in water. If the sputum be tinged with dark blood, pneumonia is suspected. In tuberculosis of the lungs bright blood may be coughed up, or mucus of a very pink tint from the coloring matter of blood, or the sputum may be very abundant, viscid, green ish, and partially submerged in water. It may he offensive in odor during tuberculosis, and is always so during gangrene of the lung. But the diagnosis does not rest on the appearance of the sputum or the' examination of the chest. Methods of staining certain elements and the use of the microscope will decide upon the presence or absence of the tubercular bacillus; Pfeiffer's bacillus, of in grippe; the pnenmococcus and the pneumobaeillus, of pneumonia; streptococens, of pus infection; or other bacilli, as well as elastic fibres from the lung. In certain cases expectora
tion of mucus is to be encouraged, and cough must not lie checked. In all cases of known or suspected communicable disease, as influenza (la grippe), pneumonia, or tuberculosis, sputum must be received in a vessel in which it is kept moist till it is destroyed by di4infection with a 1 to 40 solution of embolic acid; or. better, re eeived in a paper spit-cup which is burned before it is dry. Carpets, furniture, and bedding should be protected from expectoration in these cases of disease, and sheets, pillow-cases, handkerchiefs, napkins, and night clothing should be frequently changed and dipped in boiling water before being washed.