a missionary of healthy living.

Family examining parties were begun in New York by Dr. Linsly R.
Williams, for the relief agency that started the seaside treatment of
bone tuberculosis. Many of the crippled children at Sea Breeze were
found to have consumptive fathers or mothers. In one instance the
father had died before Charlie had "hip trouble." Long after we had
known Charlie his mother began to fail. She too had consumption. Family
parties were planned for 290 families. Weights were taken and careful
examination made, the physician explaining that predisposition means
defective lung capacity or deficient vitality. Of 379 members,
supposedly free from tuberculosis, sixteen were found to have
well-marked cases. (Of twenty Boston children whose parents were in a
tuberculosis class, four had tuberculosis.) In one instance the father
was astonished to learn not only that he was tuberculous, but that he
had probably given the disease to the mother, for whom he was tenderly
concerned. Of special benefit were the talks about teeth and
nourishment, and about fresh air and water as germ killers. One
examination of this kind will organize a family crusade against
carelessness.

[Illustration: FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS IN SMALL CITIES
New York State Charities Aid Association]

Tuberculous teachers ought to be excluded from schoolrooms not merely
because they may spread tuberculosis, but because they cannot do
justice to school work without sacrifices that society ought not to
accept. A tuberculous teacher ought to be generous enough to permit
public hospitals to restore her strength or enterprising enough to
join tuberculosis classes. It is selfish to demand independence at the
price which is paid by schools that employ tuberculous teachers.

[Illustration: FIGHTING BONE TUBERCULOSIS WITH SALT WATER AND
SALT AIR]

Predisposition to tuberculosis should be understood by every child
before he is accepted as an industrial soldier. Many trades now
dangerous would be made safe if workers knew the risk they run, and if
society forbade such trades needlessly to exhaust their employees. A
perfectly sound man is predisposed to tuberculosis if he elects to work
in stale, dust-laden air. Ill-ventilated rooms, cramped positions, lack
of exercise in the open air, prepare lungs to give a cordial reception
to tubercle bacilli. Rooms as well as persons become infected.
Fortunately, opportunities to work are so varied in most