The prevention of infection in public vehicles / by Alfred Greenwood.

  • Greenwood, Alfred.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The prevention of infection in public vehicles / by Alfred Greenwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    CHAPTER III. IXFECTION FROM PUBLIC VEHICLES. In this chapter it -will be proved that the dust of public vehicles, e.g., railway carriages, often contains living tubercle bacilli. Also apart from the infective nature of the dust, no one will deny that the dirty conditions in which many public vehicles arc allowed to remain are disgraceful in the extreme, and require vigorous remedies. These vehicles are being used more and more every year by the public, and there are now few people who do not travel in railway carriages, tramcars, and omnibuses. Manj' people use all or some of these vehicles extremely often, and spend two or three hours daily in them. Also a large number of people are compelled to make long railway journeys frequently. It is therefore obvious that passengers who are subjected to a continued inhalation of dust which may be tubercle-infected will be in danoer of contractino- tuberculosis of the lungs. The way in Avhich a public- vehicle becomes infected Avith tubercle bacilli is as follows :—A consumptive person expectorates on the floor of the vehicle. This sputum then dries into fine dust and spreads as such into the atmosphere. The drying of the sputum is accelerated by passengers.