PAPERS PRESENTED AT GENERAL SESSIONS 97 



quarantine is the exact knowledge obtained through the 

 examination of cultures from the nose and throat of pa- 

 tient and close contacts. Two cultures negative as to the 

 diphtheria bacilli means safe to release. Where the re- 

 lease is made on the experience basis of a twenty-one 

 day Cjuarantine since the onset, some cases are held 

 longer than is necessary, while others are released be- 

 fore contagion is gone. Thus we have an accurate 

 method replacing an inaccurate, unsafe one. 



Again, the positive reaction of a Schick test is a sci- 

 entific indicator of a person's susceptibility to diphtheria, 

 and the permanent immunization with toxin-antitoxin of 

 such a person thus positively proven to be susceptible 

 to diphtheria is an accomplishment of science over the 

 empiric fallacious procedures of former days in attempt- 

 ing active immunization of the individual against diph- 

 theria. 



Formerly, in our epidemiological studies, we were sat- 

 isfied under empiric methods to say whether cases of 

 typhoid fever during an epidemic came from water, milk 

 or other food, but today we want scientific data as to exact 

 source of the contamination of these, whether the food- 

 borne infection came from a typhoid case or a typhoid 

 carrier. Cultures and microscope can determine the ex- 

 act source, and adequate quarantine will eliminate the 

 person spreading the infectious material to the water, 

 milk or other food. You thus scientifically stamp out 

 your epidemic. 



Formerly, on basis of experience, we refused to termi- 

 nate any cases of measles in less than 16 to 18 days from 

 date of onset. Today, scientific accurate data has re- 

 vealed that the contagious stage in measles is over by the 

 end of the third day following the appearance of the 

 eruption, so we release the patient from quarantine in 

 five days instead of holding him as formerly for 16 to 18 

 days. 



The foi-mer public health procedure based on empiric 

 data of quarantining all cases of cerebrospinal menin- 

 gitis resulted in many useless quarantines, while the 

 scientific and other data now obtainable through spinal 

 puncture and microscopic examination permit us to 



