A person who has had any infectious disease and has been thoroughly
disinfected, with his clothes, may be allowed to mix freely with his
fellows, in school, for instance, after the following periods. Scarlet
fever: Not less than eight weeks from the appearance of the rash,
provided peeling has completely ceased, and there be no sore throat. Six
weeks is not enough, as there are cases of direct infection after seven
weeks when all symptoms have entirely disappeared. Measles and German
measles: In three weeks, provided all peeling and coughing have ceased.
Smallpox and chickenpox: A fortnight after the last scab has fallen off;
the hair, in case of smallpox, having been cut short and scrubbed with
carbolic soap or soft soap. Mumps: Four weeks from the attack if all
swelling has disappeared. Whooping-cough: Six weeks from recognition of
the whoop if the cough has entirely lost its spasmodic character, or
four weeks if all cough whatever has ceased. Diphtheria: In a month if
convalescence be complete, there being no trace of sore throat or
discharge from the nose, eyes, etc. Ringworm: When the whole scalp,
carefully examined in a good light, shows no stumpy broken hairs or
scaly patches.
It has been very difficult to impress upon communities and individuals
the extreme importance of strict obedience to the foregoing rules. There
is an unfortunate tendency in too many instances for households to fail
in guarding their neighbors from contact with their own members who are
convalescing from disease. Even such common and simple diseases as
whooping-cough, chickenpox, mumps and others that are considered
especially to belong to children, frequently prove fatal to those who
are susceptible to them, and it is truly wicked to permit by
carelessness such an infection to reach a school or elsewhere where
weaker children may suffer as a result.
COMMON SENSE IN THE SICK ROOM
Ventilation, Light, Temperature and Furnishings—Care of the Patient—His
Temperature and Pulse—Bed Sores—The Characteristics of Fever—Simple
Household Remedies—What to Put in a Remedy Cupboard—How to Keep the Baby
Well
To every living person air must be furnished every moment if life is to
be preserved. The vital element of the air is oxygen gas, the
life-giving medium, and this is diluted with nitrogen, because the
oxygen itself, breathed alone, would be too stimulating for our lungs.
In the delicate cells of the lungs the air we have inhaled gives up its
oxygen to the blood, thus purifying it, and receives in turn carbonic
acid gas and water, foul with waste matter, which the blood has absorbed
during its passage through the body and which we now exhale. The blood
is red when it leaves the heart, pure. It returns to the heart purple
from the impurities it has picked up, and by the oxygen is once more
changed to red.
Manifestly if this process is so important to a person in health, it
must be doubly so to one who is sick. The impurities of a sick room
consist largely of organic matter, including in many instances enormous
numbers of the disease germs themselves. If we uncover a scarlet fever
patient in the direct rays of the sun a cloud of fine dust may be seen
to rise from the body, the dust which carries the contagion itself. In
an unventilated place this is but slowly scattered or destroyed, and for
many days it retains its poisonous qualities. “The effect of rebreathing
the air cannot be overestimated,” says Martin W. Curran of Bellevue
Hospital, New York City. “We take back into our bodies that which has
been just rejected, and the blood thereupon leaves the lungs bearing,
not the invigorating oxygen, but gas and waste matter, which, at the
best, is disagreeable to the smell, injurious to the health, and may
contain the germs of disease.”
Fortunately rooms may be ventilated by means of windows in several
different ways with little risk of draught. For instance, the lower sash
of the window may be raised three or four inches, and a plain bar of
wood an inch in thickness, extending the whole breadth of the window,
may be put below the window sash, entirely filling the space. By this
means the air current enters above, between the two sashes in an
indirect line, and it is gradually diffused through the room without a
draught. Here is a simpler way of doing the same thing. Take a heavy
piece of paper or cloth, about twelve inches wide, and long enough to
reach across the window. Tack it tightly at both ends and the lower edge
to the frame, and raise the lower sash of the window a few inches. The
air entering will be diverted by the cloth. If the air is very cold it
must not be admitted at the bottom of the room, but from the top of the
window, and should be directed toward the ceiling so as to fall and mix
gradually with the warmer air of the room.
The influence of the sun’s rays upon the nervous system is very marked.
That room is the healthiest to which the sun has freest access. The sick
room should be kept looking bright and cheerful, unless the disease be
one that requires the eyes to be specially guarded from the light. The
eyes are weaker, however, in all sickness, and the bed should be turned
so that the patient does not look directly toward the bright light of
the open window.
The proper temperature for a sick room is sixty-eight degrees above
zero. In the hot days of summer when this temperature is greatly
exceeded, or the air is too dry, hang some thin muslin, soaked in ice
water, across the opening in the windows, which will moisten the air,
cool the room, and keep out many particles of floating dust. If the
floor of the sick room is carpeted and the illness is serious, cover the
carpet with sheets and sprinkle on them a weak solution of carbolic acid
at intervals. The sheets can be changed as often as necessary. The
cleanest wall is one that is painted, which can be washed and
disinfected in any way desired. Nurses consider papered walls the worst
ones, and plastered the next, but the latter can be made safe by
frequent lime washings and occasional scraping.
Have as little furniture as possible in the sick room, and all of this
of wood, metal or marble, kept clean by being wiped with a cloth wrung
out of hot water. A small, light table should be placed for the
patient’s use, from which he may reach his own glass of water. The bed
should not be placed with one of the sides against the wall, as a nurse
should be able to attend to a patient from either side.