rm-enemies, sunlight is its deadliest foe, and it will not live more
than two or three days exposed to sunshine. So the principal danger
against which we must be on our guard is that of direct personal
contact, as in kissing, in the use of spoons or cups in common, in the
interchange of candy or pencils, or through having the hands or clothing
sprayed by a cough or a sneeze.

The bacillus comparatively seldom even gets on the floor or walls of a
room where reasonable precautions against coughing and spitting have
been taken; but it is, of course, advisable thoroughly to disinfect and
sterilize the room of a patient and all its contents with corrosive
sublimate and formalin, as a number of cases are on record in which the
disease has been carried through books and articles of clothing which
had been kept in damp, dark places for several months. The chief method
of spread is through unrecognized mild cases of the disease, especially
of the nasal form. For this reason boards of health now always insist
upon smears being made from the throats and noses of every other child
in the family or house where a case of diphtheria is recognized. No
small percentages of these are found to be suffering from a mild form of
the disease, so slight as to cause them little inconvenience and no
interference with their attending school. Unfortunately, a case caught
from one of these mild forms may develop into the severest laryngeal
type. If a child is running freely at the nose, keep it at home or keep
your own child away from it. A profuse nasal discharge is generally
infectious, in the case of influenza or other "colds," if not of
diphtheria.

This also emphasizes the necessity for a thorough and expert medical
inspection of school-children, to prevent these mild cases from
spreading disease and death to their fellows. By an intelligent
combination of the two methods, home examination of every infected
family and strict school inspection, there is little difficulty in
stamping out promptly a beginning infection before it has had time to
reach the proportions of an epidemic.

One other step makes assurance doubly sure, and that is the prompt
injection of all other children and young adults living in the family,
where there is a case of diphtheria, with small doses of the antitoxin
for preventive purposes. Its value in this respect has been only
secondary to its use as a cure. There are now thousands of cases on
record of children who ha