Year: 1878

At recent meeting of the New Haven
| Conn board of health, DIR. LindsIey,
health officer submitted the following paper:


Diphtheria is both contagious and an
infectious disease; il is, moreover, rre-
eminently one of the class of filth diseases
that is, it occurs most frequently and
IN the most malignant and fatal form where
dampness and dirt do most prevail. The
means of protection, therefore, obviously
lie in avoidance of exposure to its pres
ence and in the most scrupulous attention
to cleanliness.


Absolute isolation of the sick, the most
rigid purity of surroundings, aided by dis
infection when required, would probably
exterminate the disease. The veteran
sanitarian, DR.. L. NJ. Snow, of Providence,
says that where there is abundant sunlight,
dryness, cleanliness and pure air, diphthe-
ria cannot prevail. The same conditions
will protect almost as effectually from most
other dangerous diseases. Such being the
truth, neither individuals nor communi-
ties can afford to ignore the fact that they
are in great degree responsible for their
own health.


When a case occurs in any family the
sick person should be placed in a 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, well aired and ex-
posed to sunlight its furniture should be
such as oan be cleansed without injury.
and all superfuous things, such as window
and table drapery, woolen carpets and the
like, should be removed. The family
should not mingle with other people. Wis
itors should be warned of the presence of
a contagious disease, and children should
not be admitted to the house


All clothing removed from the patient
should be at once placed in boiling water.
Instead of hankderchiefs soft pieces of
linen or cotton cloth should be used, and
Immediately burned. Disinfectants should
be placed in all the vessels which receive
the expectoration or other discharges from
the patient Disinfectants should also be
freely used in the sick room. Those which
destroy bad odors without causing others
are best, such as solutions of nitrate of
lead and chloride of zinc


The sick patient should not mingle with
others until fully recovered, and in cases
Of scarlet fever until all roughness of the
skin due to the disease has disappeared,
because the exfoliated skin is especially
infectious.


The disinfection of the sick room should
be thorough. The walls should be dry
rubbed, and the clothes used burned with
out shaking, the ceiling should be scraped
and lime-washed. The floor and wood
work should be washed with soap and wa
ter. The clothing or bedding used by the
patient or nurse should be purified by boil
ing for at least one hour, and should al
ways be cleaned by themselves, and under
no circumstances should they be sent to a
laundry. In case of death the body should
be placed as early as practicable in the cof-
fin with disinfectants, and the coffin tightly
closed


Children certainly, and in most cases
adults, should not attend funeral from
house in which death from diptheria or
scarlet fever has occurred. But with suit
able precautions it is not necessary that
the burial should be strictly private, pro-
vided that the corpse be not in any way
exposed.


Because children are especially liable to
take and dspread these diseases, and because
schools afford a free opportunity for this,
every child from any family in which
case of either of these diseases has occurred
should be excluded from school, and be re-
admitted not sooner than one month from
the beginning of the disease, except upon
the certificate of some competent physician
that it will be safe.


All the above precautions concern the
dangers of contagion. But the continued
prevalence of these diseases in any COM
munity is probable evidence Of unsanitary
surroundings and of sources Of sickness,
partially or wholly prcventable.


Therefore look well to the surroundings.
Abolish filth, remove dampness and all
sources of foul air, especially from living
and sleeping rooms. Disinfect thoroughly
all suspected places in yards and neglected
corners.