7. Basins containing water, to which some disinfectant has been added, should be at hand for the benefit of the attendants on the sick, who should not be sparing of their use. 8. No article of food or drink from the sick-room should be consumed by other persons. 9. Visitors to the sick-room, except in the case of clergymen and medical men, should be peremptorily forbidden; and they, when necessarily present, should, on leaving, wash their hands in water to which a disinfectant has been added, and should have as little immediate communication with others as possible. III. When a death from infectious disease occurs, the body should be wrapped in a clean sheet, and at once placed in a coffin and sprinkled with some disinfecting fluid, such as a carbolic solution, or powder, such as chloride of lime, etc., and buried with the least possible delay. On no account whatever should it be allowed to remain in a room occupied by living persons. IV. 1. On the termination of a case of infectious disease, either when the patient is pronounced free from infection, or, in the event of death, after removal of the body, the sickroom and its contents should be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. The ceilings and side walls of the sick-room, after removal of the patient, should be thoroughly cleansed and lime-washed; and the wood-work and floor thoroughly scrubbed with soap and water. Or, if previous fumigation be thought desirable, it may be practised according to directions given on a preceding page. 2. The bed and bedclothes, and all wearing apparel used by the attendants or patient, should be thoroughly disinfected before removal from the sick-room. Beds, pillows, and thick stuffs, after being soaked in disinfecting fluid, must be placed on the roof, or in an empty room, to dry. They must not be placed in the yard or in the hall-ways. All straw beds and refuse stuff must be burned. V. 1. In houses where a case of infectious disease occurs, no washing, tailoring, dressmaking, nor any similar occupation, ought to be carried on. 2. No milk or food of any kind should be supplied from infected houses. Milk has frequently been found to be a fruitful medium for conveying disease, either from having been placed in infected air, from which it has absorbed the poison, or from milk pails having been washed, or the milk adulterated, with water containing the infection. Great care should therefore be taken as to the source of the household milk supply. 3. Children from infected houses should not be allowed to attend schools, and all persons from infected houses should have as little communication as possible with others, either in private houses or in public places, such as railways, omnibuses, public-houses, churches, etc. 4. Any accumulation of filth or refuse of any kind. should be at once removed from or about the premises, and disinfectants freely used. If this cannot be done by the persons themselves, immediate notice should be given to the sanitary authorities. 5. Open and thoroughly ventilate cellars, garrets, closets, sleeping-rooms, and all other apartments, and keep them clean and dry. Observe the utmost cleanliness in basements, areas, and grounds about the house. 6. The existence of nuisances of any kind and wheresoever situated should also be at once reported. In the event of sewer gas, continued offensive odors, or constant sickness occurring in a house, proper workmen should be obtained in order to see if any structural defects exist in sinks, drains, water-closets, necessaries, etc. If such should exist, disinfection merely will be of no avail. Directions to Persons in charge of the Unburied Dead from Infectious Disease.' Cleansing. In cleansing the surface of the corpse, especially the parts most soiled by discharges, use the solution. of chlorinated soda (Labarraque's solution, of the shops), a pint to two quarts of hot water. A solution of chloride of lime, made by straining or decanting a gallon of water into which a pound of that substance has been thrown, answers the same purpose. This cleansing is required for the whole person in every case of death from cholera, fever, scarlatina, or smallpox. Cloths, sponges, etc., employed about the dead must be instantly burned or boiled. Disinfection. Fill a large wad of cotton or fine shavings with two pounds of coal-tar powder, or chloride of lime, and place it beneath the hips; and, in cases of cholera, place much more of this kind of absorbent material beneath the corpse, to absorb and disinfect the purged fluids that may flow. Directions in the Family.-Whatever disease has caused the death, order every garment and cloth that was used upon the dead person, and in cholera and infectious fevers, whatever was about the person or was soiled during sickness, to be immediately boiled, or, until boiled, to be kept in one of the disinfecting solutions. Ventilate every room and closet upon the floor where a death has occurred from an infectious disease. Keep windows and fireplaces open for several days. Burials.-The dead of cholera should be interred as soon as practicable, and always within thirty-six hours after death. 1 From the report of New York Board of Health for 1873. |