, 1880-04-08
Dlphtherta.

The following circular is issued by the
Boston Board of Health, for the pur-
pose of more widely extending the
knowledge of few well-attested facts
concerning diphthera, and reminding all
persons that greater care should be eX-
ercised to prevent the spread of this
much dreaded disease. Its cautions and
directions are good for every locality {:
"Dlphtheria is contagious and infectious
and may be easily communicated, either
directly or indirectly, from person to
person. 1t may be conveyed directly in
the act of kissing, coughing, splitting,
sneezing, or indirectly by infected arti-
cles used, as towels, napkins, handkcr-
chiefs, etc. The poison clings with great
tenacity to rooms, houses, articles of fur
niture and clothing, and many occasion
the disease, even after the lapse of
months. Diphtheria attacks all classes,
at all ages, and at all seasons Of the
year. BY preference it attacks children
and those who are debilitated from ex-
posure to filth, dampness or foul air,
from whatever source. When case of
diphtheria occurs in any family, the sick
person should be placed in o room auart
from the oJher inmates OF the house,
and should be nursed, as far as possible,
by one person only. The sick chamber
should be well warmed, exposed to sun
light and well aired; its furniture should
be such as will permit OF cleansing with
out injury, and all extra articles such as
window and table drapery, woolen car
pets, upholstered furniture and all hang
ings should be removed from the room
during the sickness The physician and
nurse as a rule, should be the Only per
sons admitted to the room. Visitors to
the infected house should be warned Of
the presence of dangerous disease
therein, and children especially should
not be admitted. All clothing removed
from the patient or the bed should be at
once placed in boiling water, or in a tub
of disinfecting fluid (three ounces sui,
phaje zinc, one ounce carbolic acid and
three gallons of water), by the nurse be-
fore beng carried through the house, or
handled by any other person. r.
They may be soaked in the fluid for
an hour and then placed IN boiling wa
ter for boiling 1t is better not to use
handkerchiefs for cleansing the nostrils
and the mouth of the patient, but rather
soft rags, which should be Immediately
thereafter burned. All vessels for re-
ceiving the discharges of the patient
should constantly contain some disin-
fecting fluid. Water closets and privies
in the house should be daily disintected
with a solution Of copperas, two pounds
to a 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 dis.
ease. Drains should be put in perfect
order and ventilated by ,fourinoh
straight pipe extended above the highest
point OF the house in every instance,
terminating at o distance from any
chimney or any other ventilator. Chill
dren in the family should not attend
school or mingle with other children un-
til the patient has wholly recovered and
all infected articles have been disinfect-
ed. On the recovery or death of the
patient the most thorough disinfection
should follow. The room and all arti-
cles 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 thousand feet of cubic space. AT
ter four or six hours open the room and
expose it to the air and sunlight for a
week. Anything that can be boiled
without injury NAV be so treated. The
walls and ceilings should be dry-rubbed
or lime washed, and the floor washed
with soap and water, to which may be
added little carbolic acid. When
death occurs the body should be imme,
diately placed in the coffin with disin-
fectants. and the coffin tightly and final
ly closed. No public funeral should
ever take place at the house where the
patient died, or elsewhere, unless the
coffin remains Theoretically sealed"