Year: 1872

From the Home and Health.l


The following advice comes to us
from q successful physician, regarding
the best method of avoiding conta-
gion in scarlet fever:


l. On the first appearance of the
| disease, the patient should be placed
in separate apartment, as near the
top of the house as possible, from
which curtains, carpets, bed-hang-
ings, and other needless articles of
furniture should be removed, and no
person except the medical attendant
and nurse or mother permitted to
enter the room.


2. A basin containing solution of
chloride of lime. or. carbolic acid
should be placed near the bed for the
patient to spit in.


3. Handkerchiefs not to be used,
but pieces of rag employed instead,
for wiping the mouth and nose of the
patient; each piece, after being used
should Immediately be burned.


4. A plentiful supply of water and
towels should be kept for the use of
the nurse, whose hands of necessity
will be soiled by the secretions of the
patient. In one hand basin, the water
should be impregnated with Condy's
fluid or chlorides, by which the taint
on the hand may be at once removed.
5. Outside the door of the sick-room,
sheet should be suspended so as to
cover the entire doorway; this should
be kept wet with solution of lime.
The effect of this will be to keep
every other part of the house free
from infection.


6. The discharges from the bowels
and kidneys of the patient should be
received into vessels charged with
disinfectants such as the solution of
carbolic acid, or chloride Of lime, and
Immediately removed. By these
means the poison thrown off from in
ternal surfaces may be rendered inert,
and deprived of the power of propa-
eating the disease.


7. The thin skin or cuticle which
peels off from tho hands, face and
other parts of the body in GONZALES
cent patients, is highly contagious.
The plan recommended for prevent
ing the poison from the skin being
disseminated through tina air is to rub
oil or lard all over the skin. This
practice is to commence ON the fourth
day after the appearance of the erup-
ton, and to be continued every day
until the patient is well enough to
take warm bath. These baths should
be administered every other day for
four times, when the disinfection may
be regarded as complete. This how
ever, should not be done without first
consulting the medical attendant.


The foregoing directions will apply
to all kinds of fever, smallpox and
other contagious diseases.


MODE OF DIs1NFECTING A sIcK-RooM.


The patient having been removed
all linen articles, such as sheets, tow
els, pillow eases, and body linen, are
to be disinfected by placing them in
a large vessel containing either Con-
dy's fluid or the solution of chloride
of lime or soda. The blankets, coun-
terpanes, and woolen articles of cloth
ing, are to be suspended on lines,
and mattresses and beds on the backs
of chairs, the furniture is also to be
removed from the walls, the windows
closed, paper pasted over the creyices,
the chimney opening of the fireplace
is also to be stopped up. An open
iron vessel is next placed in the mid
die of the room, into which put a
quarter of a pound of stone brimstone:
the birthstone is then to be ignited,
and the person who does it must i'm
mediately leave the apartment, close
the door, and paste paper over the
creyiees. At the expiration of twenty
four hours the room may be entered
and the doors and windows thrown
open to allow the fumes of sulphur to
escape. By this process the room
and everything in it may be consid-
cred to have been thoroughly disin-
/ fected.