The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-08-28
Diphtheria.
American Medical Journal.

Diphtheria is a terrible disease, and
when it breaks out in a school, or in a
family where there are several children,
unless the very best precautions are OBJ
served it is likely to spread, for it is a
disease that may be communicated from
one person to another. 1t is conta-
gious. Regarding the different measures
employed to prevent the spread of this
disease, we very greatly prefer the fumes
of burning sulphur. We regard sulphur
as the most effective disinfectant we can
use for the purpose of preventing the
spread of diphtheria in schools and in
families where several children are ex-
posed, and it has salutary effect upon
those already suffering from the disease.
We have had the care of scores of diph-
iberia patients, and we can refer to
quite number of families of children
where the disease was limited to one
child, and we verify believe that the
mental in preventing the spread 0f the
disease in these cases.
In all cases where diphtheria breaks
out in a school, no children should be
permitted to 60 to the school from
houses where the disease exists. After
school hours, in the evening, the school
rooms should be thoroughly fumigated
with sulphur. This should be done
daily, but the house should be free from
tine sulphur fumes during school hours,
for the coughing and sneezing that
might result from The sulphur fumes
would create great annoyance and con-
fusion. Where diphtheria prevails in
FAMILY, the patient or patients, if there
are two or three attacked at the same
time, should be isolated, confined to
one room, and all the children not af-
fected should be kept in some remote
part of the house, or removed from the
house entirely if practicable. In either
case, whether any of the children are
removed from the house or not, every
room, including the one occupied by
the patient, should be fumigated with
sulphur two or three times daily.
The most convenient method of fu-
migating is to drop pinch of sulphur
upon hot stove, if there is one in the
room; if there be no stove in the room,
few Goals on shovel or other conve-
nient untensil may be carried into the
room, and the sulphur may be dropped
on the Goals. A little experience will
soon enable any one to determine how
much sulphur to burn in each room. 1t
is not necessary to fill the room so full
of these sulphur fumes as to sufocate
us, and if we happen to burn little too
much sulphur in any given case, and
the fumes become offensive, the doors
and windows can be opened for min
ute or two.
Other disinfectants may be employed,
but these sulphur fumes will permeate
every crevice in the house; they are
breathed by us, our clothes are satura-
ted with them, and, witnal, we regard
this as the most practical and effectual
method of disinfection against the spread
where diphtheria prevails in a neighbor-
hood, and families fear its outbreak
among their children, they should re-
sort to sulphur fumigation daily, whether
diphtheria has appeared in the house OF
not; this may prevent its outbreak in
families that might otherwise suffer from
it. At least this precaution does not
cost much, and can do no harm. These
sulphur fumes will do us no injury.