The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-11-13
DIPHTHERIA AND ITS CAUSES.
Facts In Connection with the Disease
How it is COMMUNICATIVE
vention, &c.

DR.. G. W. Chancellor, secretary of the State
Board of Health, furnishes the following valuable
information on the subject of diphtheria, which, if
profted by, may serve to prevent an outbreak of
the disease check its spread where it already
exists:
l. Facts in Connection ,oith Diphtheria.-The
real nature of diphtheria is undetermined, and
physicians thus far have been unable to agree
upon any settled plan of treatment. Where by
gienic conditions are bad the disease will spread
from a single and become endemic CONFINED
to a circumscrbed locality or epidemic prevail
ing generally in a community The malady
differs in intensity from the mildest form, which
resembles a simple sore throat, to the worst type
of blood poisoning, which is ntractable from the
beginning.
2. Ho,o the Disease is Communicated.-Diph-
iberia is communicable in all its forms, either by
contagion or through the medium of an infected
atmosphere, and when it has once broken out in
a house it is liable to spread through the air of
apartments, especially in overcrowded and badly
ventilated habitations Children much more
liable to the disease than adults and are more
subject to its violent forms. Adults may have it
lightly not to be aware of its existence, and
thus they may disseminate it ignoraDtly among
children. All diphtheria patients and persons in
contact with them should be considered danger
is decided by a careful and intelligent physician
that they can do so without endangering others.
This applies especially to children attending pub
lie schools, churches, or assemblies of any kind.
3. Active Measures Of Preuentioa.--These con-
sists, ID in avoiding the special contagion; 81
in avoiding all crowded assemblies in illyventia-
ted rooms during the prevalence of the disease !;
(3,) in maintaining thorough cleanliness of per-
son and premises a. in the speedy removal OF
all vegetable and animal refuse matter; (5,) in
keeping cellars clean and dry; TO- in free and
thorough ventilation of dwellings, especially sleep
ing apartments ID in boiling and 6ltering drink
ing water when there is any suspicion as to its
purity; 49, in the free use of dsinfectants in all
places where foul odors may possibly arise
4. Restrictive Medsures.-The restrictive meas
ures recommended are: a. prompt isolation Of
the sick from the well; q restriction of nurses
in their intercourse with outside persons; (3)
keeping the sick room clear of all needless cloth
ing carpets drapery &C., likely to harbor the
poison of the disease; a. liberal supply of
fresh air in the sckroom, taking care to avoid di
rect drafts; (5,) burning or thoroughly disinfect-
ing and burying, remote from the house and
source of drinking water, all discharges from the
throat, nose, mouth, kidneys and bowels; (6)
placing soiled bed and body linen in boiling water
at once or in water containing little chloride OF
lime, soda or zinc; ~ dsinfecting the room in
which any case or cases of diphtheria have occur
red, with all the contents, by exposure for several
hours to strong fumes Of chlorine gas or burning
sulphur, and subsequently to currents Of fresh
air; (S,) no public funeral should be held in a
house in which q death from diphtheria has re-
Gently occurred, nor in a church or other place
where the body of diphtheria patient lies dead
(9) the bodies of those who have died of diphthe-
ria should be securely wrapped in disinfectsd
cerecloth-a sheet saturated in solution ct chic
ride of zinc, half pound of the salt to gallon of
water.
5. Prophylactic Measures.-The best phophy-
Tactic measures are : Il, wash the mouth and
gargle the throat morning and night in a weak
solution of Labarraques solution of chlorinated
soda, two teaspoonfuls to an ordinary glass OF
water; (2,) steam well the room in which the
disease exists and the Railways leading to it with
the vapor of boiling water, to which spirits of
turpentine has been added in the proportion of one
pint of the latter to five pints of water.
6. Legal Scfeguards.-In addition to the above,
the Statutes of Maryland contain regulations
which should be enforced Among them is the
act passed by the General Assembly at the Janu-
airy session of 1882, chapter 1885, entitled Dan act
to provide against the spread of infectious dis
cases." which conters abundant power upon health
officers, justices of the peace and municipal and
county authorities to restrict or suppress the in
PRODUCTION and spread of infections or contagious
diseases, if the effort to do so is made at once.