The Bulletin. 33 



in the cuspidore keep some good antiseptic in it; a tablet of bichloride of mer- 

 cury dissolved in a quart of water is a good one. He should cough or sneeze 

 into a rag. Never let a well person sleep with him, if possible, nor in the same 

 bed clothing after he has been in it; sun the pillows and mattresses and 

 air the room well, for the germs will live long in curtains and sofas and walls. 

 Hardly a day passes but we see some person disregarding these rules, but. if 

 man understood the reasons for them, I do not believe a being exists who 

 would do aught to cause suffering to those he holds dear. 



Diphtheria is very, very contagious and lives for months and is often car- 

 ried far. The excretions from the nose and throat contain the germs, so don't 

 let a child go near a person with sore throat, don't kiss anyone with sore 

 throat, don't drink from the same cup or blow the same whistle, don't handle 

 the clothing worn by the person, don't let a cat or clog in the sick room, and 

 don't fail to disinfect the bed clothing; two per cent carbolic acid and boiling 

 are good. 



Typhoid is another of our dreaded diseases, especially in the rural districts. 

 Usually we get it through the medium of water. After swallowing the typhoid 

 germ it remains in the intestine from ten to twelve days before making itself 

 definitely felt. There it multiplies enormously, and from the time the germ is 

 drunk till weeks after convalescence thousands of them are in every discharge 

 of the bowels. By this means they get on the soil, and being tiny plants, 

 loving darkness and warmth and moisture, they remain there alive a long 

 time. Rain comes and they are washed into the wells, where again they 

 begin their work of destruction. The remedy, therefore, is not quarantine, 

 but disinfection — that is, to kill the typhoid germ in the discharges, both 

 liquid and solid. Chloride of lime is good and should be allowed to stand in 

 the vessel at least half an hour before emptying. Then care should be taken 

 to empty it far from the well, and a covering of lime is a good extra precau- 

 tion. Soak the bed clothes in two per cent of carbolic acid and boil. Care 

 that no such contamination can possibly get in the well should be a first con- 

 sideration. 



Sometimes we get typhoid through the milk. Pans and pails are washed, in 

 contaminated water and then the germs find a happy home in the milk. Boil 

 the dishes and spoons after the patient is through with them. Epidemics 

 have started in which oysters and vegetables were the medium, but this hap- 

 pens rarely. A very common source of contamination is through the agency 

 of flies. Not only is this true of typhoid, but of many other of our diseases. 



By care and diligence almost anyone can rid herself of flies, because they 

 do not travel far. The thing, therefore, to do is to prevent the exposure of 

 fresh horse stable manure in your vicinity. Have the outhouses well protected 

 from flies and, where possible, sprinkle lime and sand over the top. The piles 

 of manure in the stables are a favorite breeding place, and since it is ten 

 days from the time the fly lays the egg till it is again a fly, keeping the ma- 

 nure in a tight box and removing it once a week will do much to cheek their 

 spread. Where this cannot be done, sprinkling, the stalls with a five per cent 

 solution of carbolic acid occasionally will help to remedy matters. The fly 

 lights on the germ-laden manure and, with its hairy legs, carries hundreds 

 away to deposit them in baby's glass of milk or on the food we are eating. 



Malaria, chills and fever, ague, which is the same thing, is an infectious 

 disease. We cannot get it directly, but we do contract it through the agency 

 of one particular kind of mosquito. Not all mosquitoes are capable of carry- 

 ing malaria, but one light, frail, almost noiseless kind, with hind legs so long 

 that it looks as though it were standing on its head when it bites, is the 

 guilty creature. The malaria germ is in the blood, and the malaria mosquito 

 bites the person and sucks in the blood and with it the germs. The germs 

 fasten themselves on the intestine of the mosquito, remain there a while and 

 at last find their way into its salivary glands. Again it bites a person and 

 injects, with the saliva, the germs into the victim, where it is taken up by the 

 blood. The germs get into the red corpuscles, where they remain for twenty- 

 four hours, sometimes thirty-six, before coming out and, by the presence of 

 their poisons, producing the chill of malaria. The question is, What can be 



