38 . BACTERIOLOGY. 



by steam-heat for more than five minutes was deemed sufficient. 

 They also arrived at the same result as in Koch's experiments, 

 viz., that steam-chambers are preferable to those in which dry heat 

 is employed, though it must be borne in mind that some articles, 

 .such as leather, are injured by exposure to steam. 



PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 



Nurses and others attending infectious cases should freely use 

 1 in 40 carbolic for the hands and a weaker solution for the body 

 generally. The skin of patients after recovery should be sponged 

 with 1 in 40 carbolic. The dead should be wrapped up in a sheet 

 soaked in 1 in 20 carbolic acid or a strong solution of chloride of 

 lime. Infected clothing and bedding should be burnt unless in excep- 

 tional cases, when they may be disinfected by boiling, or by exposure 

 to dry heat at 105C. to 110C. for three hours, or by steaming 

 at 100C. for fifteen minutes. Leather and other articles which 

 would be destroyed by any of these processes should be sponged with 

 1 in 40 carbolic. The walls of the sick-room and furniture should 

 be exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur, and next day washed 

 down with 1 in 40 carbolic, and the room freely ventilated by 

 opening all windows and doors. Rags should be burnt, or dis- 

 infected by boiling or exposure to steam when supplied to manu- 

 facturers. The importation of rags from places where there are 

 cases of cholera or small-pox should be prohibited. Infected ships 

 must be fumigated with sulphur, and the bilge disinfected with 

 carbolic acid. Infected railway carriages should be disinfected in 

 the same way as a sick-room. 



Tubercular sputum, cholera and typhoid evacuations and other 

 excreta should be disinfected by 1 in 20 carbolic acid, or by a strong 

 solution of chloride of lime. 



