children
as well as grown persons who have very light attacks of scarlet fever,
tuberculosis, or other diseases and go to school or about their work
scattering the germs of sickness in their spit. A child seldom drinks
from a cup without leaving on it thousands of germs. Some of these may
be germs which will cause sickness. On one drinking cup used in a
school, the germs were found to be as thick as the leaves on a maple
tree in June.

In an Ohio school one warm day, a boy with beginning measles drank
from the cup which was afterward used on the same day by the teacher
and all the other pupils. In less than two weeks every pupil and the
teacher were suffering from measles. _Put nothing into your mouth
which has been in another's mouth._

[Illustration: FIG. 96.--A schoolhouse in Morgan county, Ohio, where
sixteen pupils and the teacher caught the measles in one day by drinking
from a cup which had been used by a boy sick with the measles.]

=The Golden Rule.=--If you have a catching sickness, such as measles,
chicken pox, or whooping cough, stay away from others. Since the germs
of some diseases, like scarlet fever and diphtheria, remain in the
spit sometimes several months after you feel well, don't scatter your
spit. Hold a handkerchief before your face when you sneeze or cough.
_Wash your hands before handling food._

=Some Animals carry Sickness.=--Mosquitoes carry malaria and yellow
fever and some other diseases. Flies carry typhoid fever, grippe,
diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Bedbugs and fleas carry the plague and
leprosy. Rats carry the plague. Cats sometimes carry diphtheria. Many
cows have tuberculosis and the germs of this disease are then
sometimes found in their milk. Some children have caught tuberculosis
from drinking such milk.

[Illustration: FIG. 97.--A pane of glass held about two feet before the
face of a boy who sneezed. The spots are the droplets of spit thrown
out. Each spot showed under the microscope from 50 to 1000 germs.]

=Keeping away Smallpox.=--Smallpox was once the most terrible of all
diseases. It is so catching that two or three were often sick with it
at one time in the same family. Sometimes nearly one half the people
of a whole town would have the disease in one year. Over a hundred
years ago nearly every grown up person had little pits scattered over
his face as a result of having had smallpox.

You can always keep away smallpox by being vaccinated. The doctor can
vaccinate