such a way as to avoid draughts on the bed. A fire should be constantly
burning in an open fireplace.
The room should be on the top floor, and all cracks and openings
communicating with other rooms should be closed tightly. The door which
has to be used should have a wet sheet hanging entirely over it, the
windows and fireplace being alone relied on for ventilation.
2. The burning of sulphur produces sulphurous acid, which is an
irrespirable gas. The person who lights the sulphur must, therefore,
immediately leave the room, and after the lapse of the proper time,
must hold his breath as he enters the room to open the windows and let
out the gas. After fumigation, plastered walls should be whitewashed,
the wood-work well scrubbed with carbolic soap, and painted portions
repainted.
3. Or put copperas in a pail of water, in such quantity that some may
constantly remain undissolved at the bottom. This makes a saturated
solution. To every privy or water-closet, allow one pint of the
solution for every four persons when cholera is about. To keep privies
from being offensive, pour one pint into each seat, night and morning.
4. (_a._) Such articles should never be sent to a public laundry or
mingled with the family washing.
(_b._) The cutting open of stuffed articles may seem unnecessary, but
it is not. The poison of contagious diseases clings to such stuffs
(called =fomites=) with great tenacity for years, and must be destroyed
before they are fit to be used again.
5. It is also well to fill a large wad of cotton or fine shavings with
coal-tar powder or chloride of lime and place it beneath the hips, to
absorb fluids.
Contagious diseases are often caught at the funerals of those who have
died of them, and the sanitary code of New York city forbids a public
funeral of any person who has died of small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet
fever, yellow fever, typhus fever, or Asiatic cholera. It is better to
limit the attendance at such funerals to as few as possible.
_Additional Precautions in Special Diseases._
=Small-pox.=—Every one in the vicinity should be vaccinated with fresh
virus. Every person should be vaccinated in infancy, again after
puberty, and again within four days after exposure to small-pox.
Special care should be paid to isolation. Inmates of the house should
neither make nor receive visits while the patient is sick.
=Diphtheria= and =Consumption=.—Special care should be taken to avoid
inhaling the breath of the patient, as the diseases are communicated
through the secretions of the nose, throat, and lungs. The matter
coughed up should be received on rags and immediately burned.
=Scarlet Fever= and =Measles=.—These are communicable during
convalescence, as well as during the illness. The body of the patient
should be anointed twice a day with sweet-oil, lard, or vaseline,
containing ten grains of carbolic acid or thymol to the ounce. This
should be continued until all bran-like scaling of the skin is at an
end. Before again associating with unprotected persons, the patient
should have several complete ablutions, including thorough washing of
the hair with soap or borax; and none of the clothing worn for several
days before the disease declared itself should be again used until
thoroughly disinfected, and ventilated in the open air several days
(New York State Board of Health circular).
=Typhoid Fever=, =Asiatic Cholera=, and =Dysentery=.—Poison contained
in discharges from the bowels. Particular attention should be paid to
the disinfection of such discharges by the zinc or copperas solution.
=Yellow Fever.=—Poison possibly contained in discharges from stomach
and bowels, but requiring special conditions for development
outside the body before it can affect other persons. Excreta should
be immediately disinfected. Germs may be carried long distances in
=fomites= (clothing, bedding, and other porous substances), and
disinfection of such articles must be very thorough.
=Typhus Fever.=—No visiting to be allowed.
When there is small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, or typhus
fever in a house, immediate attendants on the sick should not leave the
house without a change of outside clothing.
_General Precautions for those entering a Sick-Room._
Never enter a sick-room with an empty stomach, or when very tired.
Never eat or drink anything that has been long exposed to the air of
the sick-room.
Breathe through your nose, and keep your mouth shut except when you are
talking.