Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-01-15
SANITARY MEASURES.
The Law nnG the Duty of Citizens
~ Practicai Suggestions for the Con.
sftSeratiOu Of All.

EDITOR HERALD: BeueVlnS Unab
our citizens are not only willing, but
anxious to do all in their power to re-
move all causes from their midst for
the propagation and spread OF scarle-
I tina, as we'll as diseases in general, I
deem it proper, for the sake Of concert
in action, to invite attention to a few
points in our sanitary regulations
passed by the Common Council last
August, and which, if observed, will
do much toward the accomplishment
of the desired end:
Section four makes it the duty of
each physician in this city to report to
| the Health Officer the name and resi-
dence of every patient he. shall have
within the city limits affected with
scarletina or other contagious disease,
and section five requires the same re-
port from every householder who may
not employ a physician where such a
case may occur, that the Health Off
GER may promptly upon such report
require proper isolation of the men,
bers of the patients family from all
schools and public assemblies and es-
tablish all necessary restraining sani-
itary regulations about the residence
of such family until such time as all
probability of communicating the dis
ease shall have passed. 5
Section seven requires that "no per-
son attending upon or otherwise COM
ing in contact with any contagious
disease in such manner or to such an
extent, as to render him or her liable
to communicate the disease, shall,
during the continuance of the disease,
go upon any public street wearing any
infected clothing, or, whilst thus at
tired, mingle with Others not affected
with the disease.h This, it will be
seen, does not excuse physicians, who,
it is presumed, never appear in the
sick room or family of the non-infect-
ed without having first changed or
disinfected theirclothing, after having
visited a patient sick of contagious
disease. All other persons who have
had contact with such disease are eX-
pected to withhold their presence from
any non-infected families or assem-
blies of children, until their clothing
is either changed or purified from the
germs of the disease. Section ten re-
quires the disinfecting, purifying and
cleansing of the house and premises
where patient has been sick of a
contagious disease. This may be
cheaply and elfectually done with the
spray of solution Of carbolic acid, or
by the evaporation of a solution of
chlorinated soda, saturating q cloth
and sIspending in the room for some
time after the convalescence or re-
moval of the patient.
All physicians agree that the causes
for the propagation of disease in gen.
eral have the effect to aggravate scar
| letina, in common with other conta-
gious diseases. Our city is sorely
infested in many places with disease
breeding nuisances, and the little
innocents of our population, as well as
the poor, cry aloud for pure air and
relief from the noisome stencil from
the neglected accumulations of garb-
age, broken drains, cesspools and the
constant deposits of unnameable filth
| in the Zanjas traversing the city.
The Conncil, on the 9th of last Au-
gust, wisely provided for the preven-
| tion of these nuisances, and required
in section one that all privy-vaults,
eesspools, sinks and drains, located on
street having sewer, should con-
meet with that sewer and be provided
with water-trap, to prevent the re-
turn of foul gases; or, if there be no
sewer on the street, that sinks and
drains must connect with well covered
cesspools, provided with the water
trap, as above, aud that privy-vaults
must be at least eight feet deep, with
escape pipes connected with the air
above the closet building. This, be it
said to the shame of much of our city,
is totally disregarded, and many hun
dreds of these Illegal temples of de-
fame stand as monuments of.disgrace
and the foul cause of disease and dis
comfort, to save the owners of prop
erty the paltry cost of erecting a new
one according to law.
Our city charter, as we'll as section
two of this ordinance, prohibits the
discharge of any drain, cesspool, sink,
or water-closet into the street so as to
create a nuisance, or any such dis
] charge into any of the zanjas or irri-