acter and Course of the Disease._--Tuberculosis is produced by a
minute vegetable parasite known as the _Bacillus tuberculosis_, a germ
which not only occurs in the human being, but is widely distributed among
the lower animals. Tuberculosis of the lungs (to restrict ourselves to
this most important manifestation) generally comes on insidiously, there
being usually no definite period from which the sufferer can date the
onset of the malady. In the early stages there is usually loss of
appetite and a pronounced feeling of weakness followed by a slight cough;
the latter symptom frequently leads patients to erroneously believe that
their trouble began with a bad cold, when as a matter of fact, the
catarrhal trouble of the throat and bronchial tubes was originally
produced by the germs of tuberculosis--there being no such thing as a
cold changing into consumption. As the disease progresses the patient
complains of fever and chills, these symptoms being oftentimes
periodical, and lead to the belief that the trouble is malarial fever:
this mistake is very common, and whenever such symptoms appear a good
physician should be immediately consulted. The patient also suffers from
exhausting night-sweats in many instances, though this is not invariable.
A rapid loss of flesh is one of the earliest and most common symptoms.
The symptoms above enumerated continue and grow worse, and in quite a
proportion of the cases there is, in addition, spitting up blood, which
in some instances may be so pronounced that it becomes a distinct
hemorrhage. In the more rapid or "galloping" forms of the disease the
patient frequently dies within a few weeks or a month or so, while in the
less severe types the malady may persist for many years before death
occurs.

_Treatment._--The treatment of tuberculosis by drugs has proven an entire
failure, but a large number of persons afflicted with this disease will
recover, if placed under proper hygienic conditions.

The patient should be put on a porch or in a tent, whether it be winter
or summer, and kept in bed at absolute rest as long as there is any
fever, and should be fed in abundance with good, wholesome food. While
this treatment appears simple it should always be carried out under the
directions of a physician, as it is only possible for those having a
thorough knowledge of the subject to give such directions as would lead
to a rapid cure of the patient.

_Modes of Infection._--Hereditary tubercu