HOW SCARLET FEVER Ii I'ROI'AGATED.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 163, 23 March 1871, Page 7

HOW SCARLET FEVER IS PROPAGATED.

(From the "Birmingham Daily Post")

The ravages of tho scarlatina epidemic have assumed such formidable proportions, and have so far baffled, to a great extent, the zealous efforts uf sanitary reformers, that any discovery tending to diminish the extent of the disease must be regarded as a national blessing. Such a ducovery has, we believe, been made. Experiments have lately been conducted at the Birmingham Children's Hospital which point most conclusively to tliei fact that scarlet fever is communicated in. numberless cases through the medium of the laundry. It has always been a recognised fact with medical men that the clothing of fever patients is ,iv " ■ medium of infection; but it is. onl**» now the important fact has been elicited that the mixing of such clothes with others in the wash is an active agent in the spread of the disease. The experiments at the Children's Hospital have resulted in the establishment of a very important matter, viz., that when the clothes of the patients in the infectious ward are washed separately from those of the other patients, those other patieuts do not incur scarlet fever. The observation of members of the faculty having been drawn to this fact, they carried out the principle still further, aud watched its development with the narrowest care. Among the results it was established that the patients in the ward over the laundry were more frequently attacked than those- in distant wards. Now, if — os seems clear from these experiments — the fever germs are not destroyed by water at 2L2 degrees Fahrenheit, we have the startling fact that every laundry is liable to be turned into a fever manufactory whenever thoughtless orignorant persons send the clothes of patients to ha was'ied there. The question is one of the utmost gravity, and its importance to labourers in the field of sanitary sjiance cannot be overated. To stamp out scarlatina we must isolate the washing of the patients. If they can afford it, the best thiug is to burn the clothing; but where that would bo too costly for the pockets of the sufferers, the washing should be done on the ground floor of the same house, and no other clothing should be mixed with it. By that meaus, and usual precautions of isolating the patient, the disease, it is believed, would be narrowed to the house iv which it broke out, and, very possibly, to one case. So important is this matter of infection by means of the laundry, that we understand it will shortly from the subject of a contribution to one of rhe medical Journals.

A Chinaman in Melbourne, who was being identified in a charge of robbery, "' slewed " his lower jaw to n couple of inches on one side, and raised an eyebrow to the top of his forehead, while he clothed the eye on the other side, so that his face was so altered that he would scarcely have recoguised it himself if shown it in the looking-glass; but the Chinese detective, Fook Shing, being well versed in these little tricks, seized the man's jaw with one hand, and his pigtail with the other, and " righted " his physiognomy in a second.

A genial rector of a village parish in Minnesota found it difficult to get hw salary promptly. Latterly " it was. much behind. G-oinjj to one of his " delinquent parishioners iv the hardware trade, he looked overall his stock of corkscrews very fastidiously, seeking a large one of peculiar strength.' and size. To the enquiry. " What do*; you want of such a thing, enyhow?" " My dear sir, I want a corkscrew thai; can draw my salary !" The payments are coming more promptly. A "Daily Times" telegram, dated Greymouth, March Bfch, says: — Jafnes Cattle, late owner of the Golden- Age Hotel, Greym^uth; has been found drowned iv the I.igoon. • At first suspicions of foul play were entertained, but it is now thought that he committed suicido. An inquest on the body is now proceeding. • A Christum and Hts Riches. — In a late number of the" Christian- World" it is stated .-—"The directors of the London Missionary Society have very recently received fresh tokens of the continued regard aud confidence of their most liberal supporters. Mr. Henry Hopkins, of Hobart Town, who sent a donation of £500 last April, has just written saying that he is now 85 years of age, aud having occasion, to alter his will as he had purposed leaving the society a legacy he resolved to be his owu executor, and forwarded tho sum of £30D0 at once as a donation to ths society — adding: 'If our rich men wore to think what their riches were given for, they would think it a pleasure to assist you, till in" the course of time you would have more than was needed. About sixty years ago I wrote in my cash-book that I would devote one tenth of my income to the spread of the Gospel aud. the welfare of the poor. , I had not much then, but since then I have been, able to give away large sums evory rear for many years ; therefore God has prospered me, and I write this that some young meu may be led to do the same."

Fifty ounces of gold were obtained in four hours the other day from a claim st the Half-Ounce, Grey Valley.