The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-02-17
TREATMENT OF SMALLPOX.
Intelligent and Careful Nursing Can
Do wonders I'm Warding on
Following Evils.


Less than century ago smallpox
was as common as scarlet fever is to-
day, and it was as unusual for one TO
escape its attack as it is now for
person to grow to adult life without
having suffered from this pest Of
childhood. So almost inevitable was
it that it became common practice
to inoculate people in early life, as the
disease so produced was found to be
milder than that arising from con-
tagion. Then vaccination was discov-
cred, and as it became general small
pox ceased to be the scourge it had
been.
There is no remedy that will cut
short an attack of smallpox; but skill
full medical treatment and especially
intelligent and careful nursing, can
do wonders in the saving of life and
in warding off the evils which may fol-
low the disease.
Smallpox being one of the most con-
tagious of diseases, it is imperative to
isolate the patient, no one except the
doctor and the nurses being permit
ted to enter the sick room. This room
should be in the upper story of the
house, and NO room ON that floor
should be occupied by any other MEM
Der of the family.
All carpets, hangings and uphol-
stored furniture should be removed
from that floor, and the sickroom
CHI h<,1 oil l~,.< h. Int,
ly necessary articles of furniture. In
front of the door should be hung a
large sheet reaching to the floor,
which must be kept constantly wet
with a solution of chloride of lime,
carbolic acid or some other efficient
disinfectant.
The patient must not be allowed to
leave the room until some days after
the peeling of the skin is over. Then
a bath should be prepared in another
room, and to this he should go, leav-
ing his clothes in the sick room. After
the bath, which must be very thor
ough, including a shampoo, the pa
tient may dry himself hastily, and
then, with only a clean sheet over
him, go downstairs to another room,
where there are clean clothes ready
for him. The nurses should go
througha similar process before meet
ing other people.
Ike clothes left in the sick room,
including bedclothes, had better be
destroyed. or, if not, they must be
boiled for at least half an hour. The
room and furniture must be thorough
ly disinfected before it is again occu-
pied.
The only sure preventive of small
pox is vaccination, and as its protect
i've power gradually becomes weak
with time, it is wise to repeat it every
ten or Is years, and anyone exposed
to smallpox ought always to be revac-
cinated, no matter how recently the
operation may have been performed
Even when the efficiency of vacci-
nation is so far weakened as not to
protect against an attack of smallpox,
it is almost always sufficient to rem
der the attack mild, and it is rare for
a person with good vaccination scars
to suffer from anything more severe
than varioloid. 1t is important to re-
member, however, that varioloid il
true smallpox in a mild form, and the
patient is just as dangerous to those
about him as if he had continent small
pox. Hence the above described pre-
cautions should be taken in every case,
however mild.-Youth's Companion.