The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-03-31
Diphtherfa.

D1phther1a.
The following circular was issued by
the Boston Board of Health, for the
purpose Of more widely extending the
knowledge Of few well .attested facts
concerning diphtheria, and reminding
all persons that greater care should be
exercised to prevent the spread of this
much: dreaded, disease. It's cautions
and directions are good for every To-
cality. Diphtheria is contagious and
infectious, and may be easily commune
Gated, either directly or indirectly, from
person to person. It may be conveyed
directly in the act of kissing, coughing,
splitting, sneezing, or indirectly BY in
fected articles used, as towels, napkins,
handkerchief, etc.
When case of diphtheria occurs in
any family, the sick person should be
placed in q room apart from the other
inmates of the house, and should be
nursed, as far as possible, by one person
only. The sick-chamber should be well
warmed and exposed to sunlight and
well aired; its furniture should be such
as will permit of cleansing without in
jury, and all extra articles, such as win
dow and table drapery, wooden carpets,
upholstered furniture and all hanglngs,
should be removed from the room dur
ing the sickness. The physician and
nurse, as rule, should be the only per
sons admitted to the room.
i. Visitors to the infected house should
be warned of the presence of danger
GUS disease therein, and children es-
pecially should not be admitted. All
clothing removed from the patient, or
the bed, should be at once placed in
boiling water, or in tub of disinfect-
ing fluid 6 OF. sulphate zinc, / OF. car
bolic acid, and 8 gallons water) by the
nurse before icing carried through tho
house or handled by any other person.
They may be soaked in this fluid for an
hour, and then placed in boiling water
for boiling. ..-. ....--,.4.
It is better not to use handkerchiefs
for cleaning the nostrils and mouth of
the patient, but rather soft rags, which
should be Immediately thereafter
burned. All vessels for receiving tho
discharges of the patient should con-
stantly contain some disinfecting
fluid. Water closets and privies in tho
house should be disinfected daily with
a solution Of copperas-two pounds to
q gallon of water. Every kind and
source of filth in and around the house
should be thoroughly removed, and dis
infectants freely used. Cleanliness
tends both to prevent and mitigate the
disease. Drains should be put IN per-
feet order, and ventilated by four-inch
straight pipe extended above the highest
point of the roof of the house in every
instance, terminating at distance from
any chimney or other ventilator. Child
rem in the family should not attend
school or mingle with other children
until the patient has wholly recovered,
and all infected articles have been dis
infected.
On therecovery or death of the pa
tient the most thol ough disinfection
should follow. The room and all ar
ticles in it should be at once subjected
to the fumes of burning sulphur as fol-
lows: Close the room tightly and burn
two and half pounds of sulphur to each
one thousand feet of cubic space. After
four or six hours open the room and
expose it to the air and sunlight for q
week. Anything that can be boiled
without injury may be SO treated. The
walls and ceilings should be dry rubbed
or ime-washed, and the floors washed
with soap and water, to which may be
added little carboGc acid. When
death occurs the body should be inn
mediately placed in the coffin, with dis
infectants, and the coffin tightly and
finally closed. No public funeral should
ever take place at the house where the
patient died, nor elsewhere, unless the
coffin remains theoretically sealed.