When the moisture of the breath is condensed and
collected, it will putrefy. Every drop of condensed moisture that forms
on the walls of a crowded room is potentially a productive focus for
microbes. Every deposit of dirt on persons, clothing, or furniture is
also a productive focus, and production is fostered in close apartments
by the warmth and moisture of the place. In hospitals productive foci are
more numerous than in ordinary dwellings.
If microbes are present in the breath of ordinary individuals, what can
we expect in the breath of those whose lungs are rotten with tubercular
disease? Then we have the collections of expectorated matter and of other
organic secretions, which all serve as productive foci. Every wound and
sore, when antiseptic precautions are not used, becomes a most active and
dangerous focus, and every patient suffering from an infective disease is
probably a focus for the production of infective particles. When we
consider, also, that hospital wards are occupied day and night, and
continuously for weeks, it is not to be wondered at that microbes are
abundant therein.
I want especially to dwell upon the fact that foci, and probably
productive foci, may exist outside the body. It is highly probable,
judging from the results of experiments, that every collection of
putrescible matter is potentially a productive focus of microbes.
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