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Young Knights of the Empire

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at night by Maltese watchmen, I soon found that I need not be always going round to see that they were alert, because their habit of constantly spitting showed me next morning whether they had been awake and where they had stood or walked during the night. One day I found the pavement of one man's beat quite clean and dry, so I had him up and accused him of having been absent without leave. He did not know how I found it out, so confessed that he had been away to see a friend, thinking there was no harm in it, since the place was all locked up and secure. Englishmen are fortunately not so dirty in their habits as to be always spitting, but, still; there is a little of it going on in our streets; and even a little is a bad thing. It is not only a habit that is nasty to other people, but it is dangerous as well, for the following reason; So many men are suffering from consumption or disease of the lungs even without knowing it. When they spit they throw out a number of tiny "germs," which, although too small to be seen, get into the air and are very easily breathed in again by other passers-by; and these germs contain the seeds of the disease, which are thus sown in healthy people, and make them "consumptives" also. Unhappily people are rather fond of spitting in railway carriages. A man doing this was fined ten shillings and two guineas costs not long since. His excuse was that he had a bad cough. Any Scout could have told him, apart from the dirty, disgusting part of the habit, how very dangerous to other passengers it is for a person with a bad cough to indulge in this habit. Little living seeds of disease are in this way let loose to get into other people's throats and lungs, and possibly to bring them illness and death. * * * * * THE WAR AGAINST CONSUMPTION. Sixty thousand people die every year of consumption in Great Britain. One death in every eight is from consumption. Two hundred and fifty thousand people, or one in every two hundred, have the disease in them. Consumption is caught through carelessness or ignorance, by breathing the germs, or in drinking them in milk. The following are a few simple rules which, if followed, should help to prevent you from getting it: 1. Live much in the open air. 2. Sleep with the window open. 3. Breathe through the nose. 4. If you drink milk, be sure that it is pure. 5. Keep your blood healthy with exercise, good and plain food. 6. Keep your home clean and well ventilated. 7. Never neglect a cold. Here are some pictures showing how people get the germs of consumption into them unless they are very careful. A large number of cows have the germs or seeds of consumption in them, and they give out these germs in their milk. So milk ought to be "sterilised," that is to say, it should be made so hot that the germs are killed before it is drunk. [Illustration: DO NOT DRINK MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW, AS A GREAT NUMBER OF THESE ANIMALS HAVE THE GERMS OF CONSUMPTION IN THEM.] Then a large number of people have the consumption germs in them, although they may not yet be ill with it. They will get ill sooner or later, and they give out germs whenever they cough or spit. [Illustration: HOW CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD. A man spits and the germs rise. They try a boy who breathes through the nose, but get thrown out again. Then they try another boy who breathes through his open mouth, and so they get into his lungs.] These germs get blown about in the air with the dust, and get into other people's mouths, and so into their lungs--that is, if the other people go about with their mouths partly open. If they breathe through their nose only, as I hope all Scouts do, there is less chance of the germs getting into the lungs, as they get caught in the sticky liquid in the nostrils, and get driven out again when you blow your nose. It is the same with other diseases besides consumption. The Missioner Scout can safely go about among people who are ill with colds, measles, and other sicknesses, if he breathes only through his nose. All illnesses that are "catching" are spread by germs flying from one person to another. The consumptive germs get into you and go for your lungs, which are

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