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KEEPING WELL |
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used frequently to the spaces around the nails. Dirty hands, finger nails, and instruments are responsible for much of the disease which ought never to occur.
A room which has been occupied by a person with an infectious disease should in no instance be used again until everything in it, and better still, everything in the house, has been disinfected. In most of our cities the board of health will attend to such matters, but in villages and in the country, it must be done by individuals. Carpets and curtains, also all bed coverings and mattresses, must be steamed for an hour or longer until every inch of surface has been thoroughly permeated. Inexpensive articles of furniture, especially when old and dilapidated, also straw beds, old coverings, etc., should be destroyed by fire. Walls, ceilings and floors may then be scrubbed, if they will admit of such treatment, with hot bi-chlo-ride of mercury solution (one of mercury to one thousand of water). Windows and doors must then be closed and formaline vapors liberated into the room for an hour. This method is preferable to burning sulphur in the room; it is more effective and the odor is less persistent. The room should remain closed for twenty-four hours; it may then be opened and aired and used again with safety.
The proper rule to follow in these days, when we know the terrible possibilities from the spreading of infectious disease, is to take all necessary precautions which are available, resting reasonably assured that if we do, the disease cannot be extended through fault of ours. There is little excuse for ignorance in such matters; in fact, ignorance becomes a crime, for it need not exist. |
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