196 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY 



"If possible, one attendant should take entire care of the sick 

 person, and no one else besides the physician should be allowed 

 to enter the sick-room. The attendant should have no com- 

 munication with the rest of the family. The members of the 

 family should not receive or make visits during the illness. 



" The discharges from the nose and throat must be received 

 on handkerchiefs or cloths, which should be at once immersed 

 in a carbolic solution (made by dissolving six ounces of pure 

 carbolic acid in one gallon of hot water, which may be diluted 

 with an equal quantity of water). All handkerchiefs, cloths, 

 towels, napkins, bed linen, personal clothing, night-clothing, etc., 

 that have come in contact in any way with the sick person, after 

 use should be immediately immersed, without removal from the 

 room, in the above solution. These should be soaked for two or 

 three hours, and then boiled in water or soapsuds for one hour. 



" In diphtheria and scarlet-fever, great care should be taken in 

 making applications to the throat or nose, that the discharges 

 from them in the act of coughing are not thrown into the face or 

 on the clothing of the person making the applications, as in this 

 way the disease is likely to be caught. 



" The hands of the attendant should always be thoroughly dis- 

 infected by washing in the carbolic solution, and then in soap- 

 suds, after making applications to the throat or nose, and before 

 eating. 



" Surfaces of any kind soiled by the discharges should be im- 

 mediately flooded with the carbolic solution. 



" Plates, cups, glasses, knives, forks, spoons, etc. used by the 

 sick person for eating and drinking must be kept for his especial 

 use, and under no circumstances removed from the room or 

 mixed with similar utensils used by others, but must be washed 

 in the room in the carbolic solution and then in hot soapsuds. 

 After use the soapsuds should be thrown into the water-closet 

 and the vessel which contained it should be washed in the carbolic 

 solution. 



" The room occupied by the sick person should be thoroughly 

 aired several times daily, and swept frequently " (we think it 

 better to wipe floors with cloths wet with a disinfecting solution), 



