are absent in the beginning, and when the physician is called the condition is dangerous.  Usually the patient complains but little.  There is a slight headache, low fever, no heat in the head, patient is pale most of the time, has little appetite, vomits occasionally and desires to sleep.  He is nervous, stupid and lies on his side curled up with eyes away from the light.  This disease appears mostly in delicate children, who are poor eaters and fond of books; usually in those inheriting poor constitutions.  The mortality is very high.  Parents who have thin, pale sallow children with dainty appetites, who frequently complain of headaches and are fond of books, should be afraid of infection from tuberculosis and make the little ones live in the open air and keep away from school.  But earlier in the lives of these children care must be taken.  A child with that pale, thin, sallow, delicate face and poor body should be fed with the best of food and live in the open air.  I once had a family who lost their only two babies through this disease.  After the first one died I instructed them carefully how to treat the second child.  However, they loved their child foolishly and not wisely and fed it everything it wanted, and you know the children take an advantage of their parents.  Give plenty of good, wholesome digestible food.  Dress them comfortably and warm and keep them out in the open air.  No cakes, candy, peanuts or any food that is not nourishing and easy to digest.

[Infectious diseases 211]

Tuberculosis. (Consumption).—­Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus, tuberculosis, and characterized by the formation of nodules or diffuse masses of new tissue.  Man, fowls and cows are chiefly affected.

Indians, negroes and Irish are very susceptible.  The disease is less common at great altitudes.  Dark, poorly ventilated rooms, such as tenements and factories and the crowding of cities favors infection, as do in-door life and occupations in which dust must be inhaled.  Certain infections such as measles, whooping-cough, chronic heart, kidney and liver diseases and inflammation of the air tract are predisposing factors.  Inhalation is the chief mode of transmission.  Hereditary transmission is rare.

Forms.  The Lungs.—­Consumption.  This is caused by a germ.  Some have the form called galloping consumption.  This person is attacked suddenly, wastes away and dies, in a very short time.  There is rapid loss of strength and weight, high fever, night sweats, fast breathing, pains in the chest, cough and profuse expectoration, and rapid loss of strength.