394 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



For this purpose the rooms to be disinfected 

 must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, 

 bedding, and other articles which cannot be 

 treated with zinc solution, should be opened 

 and exposed during fumigation, as directed 

 below. Close the rooms as tightly as possible, 

 place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon 

 bricks, set it on fire by hot coals, or with the 

 aid of a spoonful of alcohol, and allow the 

 room to remain closed for twenty-four hours. 

 For a room about ten feet square, at least two 

 pounds of sulphur should be used ; for larger 

 rooms, proportionally increased quantities. 



3. Premises Cellars, yards, stables, gut- 

 ters, privies, cesspools, water-closets, drains, 

 sewers, etc., should be frequently and liberally 

 treated with copperas solution. The copperas 

 solution is easily prepared by hanging a basket 

 containing about sixty pounds of copperas in a 

 barrel of water. 



4. Body and Bed Clothing, etc. It is best to 

 burn all articles which have been in contact 

 with persons sick with contagious or infectious 

 diseases. Articles too valuable to be destroyed 

 should be treated as follows : 



a. Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, etc., 

 should be treated with the boiling hot zinc 

 solution, introducing piece by piece, securing 

 thorough wetting, and boiling for at least half 

 an hour. 



5. Heavy woolen clothing, silks, furs, stuffed 

 beds covers, beds, and other articles which can- 

 not be treated with the zinc- solution, should 

 be hung in the room during fumigation, 

 pockets being turned inside out, and the 

 whole garment thoroughly exposed. After- 

 ward they should be hung in the open air, 

 beaten, and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed 

 mattresses, upholstered furniture, etc., should 

 be cut open, the contents spread out and thor- 

 oughly fumigated. Carpets are best fumi- 

 gated on the floor, but should afterward be 

 removed to the open air and thoroughly beaten. 



SLEEPLESSNESS. 



Nothing lowers the vital forces more than 

 sleeplessness, which may generally be traced 

 to one of four causations : (1) mental worry ; 

 (2) a disordered stomach ; (3) excessive muscu- 

 lar exertion ; (4) functional cr organic disease. 

 Loss of sleep is, when rightly understood, one 

 of Nature's premonitory warnings that some 

 of her physical laws have been violated. When 

 we are troubled with sleeplessness, it becomes 

 requisite to discover the primary cause, and 

 then to adopt suitable means for its re- 

 moval. When insomnia, or sleeplessness, 

 arises from mental worry, it is indeed most 

 difficult to remove. The best and perhaps 

 the only effectual plan under such circum- 



stances to reach the root of the disorder is a 

 spare diet, combined with plenty of outdoor 

 exercise, thus to draw the blood from tha 

 brain ; for it is as impossible for the brain to 

 continue active without a due circulation of 

 blood as it is for an engine to move without 

 steam. 



When suffering from mental distress, a hot 

 soap bath before retiring to rest is an invalua- 

 ble agent for obtaining sleep, as by its means 

 a more equable blood pressure becomes estab- 

 lished, promoting a decrease of the heart's 

 action and relaxation of the blood vessels. 

 Many a sleepless night owes its origin to the 

 body's temperature being unequal. In mental 

 worry, the head is often hot and the feet cold, 

 the blood being driven to the brain. The 

 whole body should be well washed over with 

 carbolic soap and sponged with very hot water. 

 The blood then becomes diverted from the 

 brain, owing to an adequate diffusion of circu- 

 lation. Tea and coffee should not be taken 

 of an evening when persons suffer from insom- 

 nia, as they directly induce sleeplessness, be- 

 ing nervine stimulants. A sharp walk of 

 about twenty minutes is also very serviceable 

 before going to bed. 



Sleeplessness is sometimes engendered by a 

 disordered stomach. Whenever this organ is 

 overloaded, its powers are disordered, and 

 wakefulness or a restless night is its usual ac- 

 companiment. Dr. C. J. B. Williams, F.R.S., 

 remarks that no food should be taken at least 

 within one hour of bedtime. It cannot be too 

 generally realized that the presence of undi- 

 gested food in the stomach is one of the most 

 prevailing causes of sleeplessness. 



Persons suffering from either functional or 

 organic disease are peculiarly liable to sleep- 

 lessness. When inability to sleep persistently 

 occurs, and cannot be traced to any perverted 

 mode of life or nutrition, there is good reason 

 for surmising that some latent malady gives 

 rise to a condition so truly distressing. Under 

 these circumstances, instead of making bad 

 worse, by swallowing deadly sleeping drugs, a 

 scientific physician should be without delay 

 consulted. Functional disorders of the stomach, 

 liver, and heart, are often the primary source 

 of otherwise unaccountable wakefulness. 



Recently the dangerous and lamentable 

 habit of promiscuously taking sleeping draughts 

 has unfortunately become very prevalent, en- 

 tailing misery and ill health to a terrible de- 

 gree. Most persons addicted to this destruc- 

 tr'e practice erroneously think that it is better 

 to take a sleeping draught than lie awake. A 

 greater mistake could hardly exist. All opi- 

 ates more or less occasion mischief, and even 

 the state of stupefaction they induce utterly 



