It kills every year, in the United States, over a hundred and fifty thousand men, women, and children--_more lives than were lost in battle in the four years of our Civil War_.

It is caused by a tiny germ--the _tubercle bacillus_--so called because it forms little mustard-seed-like lumps, or masses, in the lungs, called _tubercles_, or "little tubers." For some reason it attacks most frequently and does its greatest damage in the lungs, where it is called _consumption_; but it may penetrate and attack any tissue or part of the body.

Tuberculosis of the glands, or "kernels," of the neck and skin, is called _scrofula_; tuberculosis of the hip is _hip-joint disease_; and tuberculosis of the knee, _white swelling_.

"Spinal disease" and "hunch-back" are, nine times out of ten, tuberculosis of the backbone.

Tuberculosis of the bowels often causes fatal wasting away, with diarrhea, in babies and young children; and tuberculosis of the brain (called _tubercular meningitis_) causes fatal convulsions in infancy.
[Illustration: CONSUMPTION IN CHICAGO Four hundred and seventy-seven cases in one month--February, 1909.] Tuberculosis of the Lungs--How to Keep it from Spreading.