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2 5 Like spitting, the public drinking cup in schools, hotels, railway stations, and other public buildings was considered an obvious purveyor of disease. "A public toothpick," one writer acidly remarked, "would be more unpopular, but not a whit more undesirable,"26 and various substitutes for the public drinking cup, including disposable paper cups and "bubbling fountains," were promoted. Milk, too, could transmit tuberculosis. Not only could a diseased cow infect the beverage but the common method of selling it to the urban poor, as "dip tank milk," almost ensured contamination after it was shipped to the city.

It seemed foolish to spend money importing countless strangers while native Canadians were callously neglected. J. Richer pointed out in 1903 that probably 48,000 Canadians were invalided each year from tuberculosis - and the federal government had brought in 49,149 immigrants at a cost cost AT A a COST DDCC°f $495^42 in 1902. 59 As the president of the national association, J. George Adami, demanded, with more than a hint of xenophobia: "Is it not better for us in Canada i8 The Weariness, the Fever, and the Fret Patient on a roof.

I also remembered instantly that several relatives had died of it; that was the position I found myself in. "97 To counteract this problem, sanatoria attempted to adopt a policy in the early years of admitting only early cases. By this means they hoped to have a higher cure rate; patients would stay a shorter time, and they would not require the medical facilities a sanatorium neither had nor could afford. 98 Outpatient Care: The Dispensary Sanatoria did not touch the lives of the vast majority of tuberculosis victims: the urban poor.