Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 111, 3 May 1876, Page 4

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVNh. Dr w!i ii)' hy Wili.um Como. M.A-, M.D., Oxon., F.R.C.R. Pond., Modi fill Officer of Health for tlio combined districts of East Herts ; and circulated I>y the Sanitary Authorities. rill ITT()!!), enteric, or gastric lever are the names .idvon to one and the same infectious disease 1 , this being a fever produced hy excremcntal poisoning and almost in variably accompanied hy diarrhoea. Of all exereiiiental matter, the most poisonous is that which conics from persons themselves ill with the fever; and it is principally by means of their stools that the disease spreads from one person to another. The poison may ho taken in hy breathing the ellluvia from these discharges, or from the privy, cesspool, or drains into which they have been emptied; or hy drinking' water from wells into which they have soaked ; or hy swallowing particles that have adhered to clothes, bedding or other objects, and thence been accidentally transferred to articles of food or cooking utensils. Destruction of the fever poison in the stools, the moment these leave the body, hy means of disinfectants, and (inasmuch as the action of disinfectants is nut thoroughly certain) the safe disposal of the stools themselves, are the imams hy which wo should try to prevent the disease from spreading. Let all persons, therefore, who would keep themselves and their neighbours free from infection, observe strictly the following ruh'S shnold the disease occur in their houses; 1. Remove at once from the sickroom all carpels, curtains, and other objects likely to get fouled. 2. Keep every one whose presence is not absolutely necessary out of the sick room, and hy means of open windows and open doors give the patient as much fresh air as possible. Rut a piece of waterproof sheeting under the bed clothes, in the middle of the bed, so as to prevent the bed from gelling soiled. •t. Rut a teacnpfnl of the following disinfecting fluid into a bed-pan or other vessel each time before the patient uses it, and add some more immediately after : —Soda water, a gallon ; sulphate of iron (i.e., copperas), a pound; carbolic acid (the common impure kind), half a pint. In preparing this fluid the iron should first he dissolved hy stirring in boiling water, and the carbolic acid added when the iron is dissolved and the fluid cool. Remember that carbolic acid is a poison ; keep the mixture therefore in a safe place. The same fluid may be used with great advantage to disinfect any accumulation of filth, such as a dung-pit or cesspool. As a general rule two ipiarfs will snlliee to disinfect one cubic foot of foul matter. 0. Take care that the discharges are thoroughly mixed with the disinfecting fluid, and then carry them immediately into the garden or field, and bury them in a deep trench, previously dug for the purpose, as far as pos.-ihle from any well or otfior water supply. On no account let them be thrown on to a refuse heap. If the house he in a town, and without a garden, so that the stools must of necessity be thrown down the closet, add a double allowance of the disinfectant, and take care that the emptying ho done without splashing the scat, and that the closet be Hushed until basin and pan are thoroughly clean. G. Let bed and body linen, immediately it is taken off, be put into a tub of water, to winch carbolic acid has been added, in the proportion of half a pint of acid to a bucket of water. Have the tub and fluid ready prepared and at hand before the linen is taken off. Let the linen soak in this for two hours, and and then let it ho actually boiled in washing. On no account must the linen lie sent to a laundress without thorough previous disinfection, nor without informing her of its character, so that she may not wash it with the linen of other persons. 7. Let the nurse observe the most scrupulous care to keep everything clean. Let her wear a dress of washing material, as this is more easily disinfected than wool. As her hands must almost unavoidably get soiled in helping the patient, lot them wash them frequently in waiter to which some disinfecting fluid has boon added., and let her take care that the water thus used, as well as all other slops, be emptied carefully into the garden trench. 8. When the illness is over, the bod if soiled, should be burnt; or the tick or sacking cover may be disinfected by thorough boiling, and the Hock or straw stuffing burnt. Should there he a disinfecting oven available,the stuffing of hair mattrasscs may be teased out and then disinfected by baking at a temperature of 250deg. P. Otherwise this also should be destroyed. 0. If fever be in your neighbourhood but not as yet in your house, take the following precautions to keep it out: —.Prink no water that is open to the least suspicion, or, if you can get no other, hod it before drinking. Use no closet or privy that is used hy houses in which there is already fever. Give immediate notice to the Sanitary Inspector of any nuisance in your neigh bourhood, such as a stinking drain or gaily, heaps of offensive refuse, and the Hke. Use all your influence influence o insist upon the proceeding precautions toiug strictly earned out by your b< high hours whoso houses are alrady infected.