180 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



The Furniture, etc. — The wholesale destruction of fur- 

 niture practised in earlier times has at present become 

 unnecessary. The doctor, if he properly performs his 

 functions, will save much trouble and money for his 

 patient by ordering the immediate isolation of his charge 

 in an uncarpeted, scantily- and cheaply-furnished room 

 the moment an infectious disease is suspected, before 

 much infection can have occurred. However, if before 

 his removal the patient has occupied another bed, its 

 clothing should be promptly handled in the above- 

 described manner. 



After the illness the walls of the rooms, including the 

 ceiling should be sprayed with formalin, or, where it can- 

 not be obtained, may be rubbed with fresh bread, which 

 Loffler has shown to be efficacious, though scarcely prac- 

 ticable, in collecting the bacteria, or, if possible, should 

 be whitewashed. If the walls are hung with paper, they 

 may be dampened with i : iooo bichlorid-of-mercury so- 

 lution before new paper is hung. 



Aronson 1 says: "For the disinfection of living-rooms 

 there is no method that can compare in the remotest 

 degree, as regards certainty and simplicity, with that by 

 means of formaldehyde gas. For example, any one who 

 has seen the process of cleansing walls by rubbing them 

 down with bread, as carried out by the disinfecting corps, 

 will agree with me that, however effective it may be 

 from a theoretical point of view, it is absolutely inefficient 

 in practice. The possibility of disinfecting rooms and all 

 their contents with certainty, by means of a simple, 

 cheap, harmless, and easily managed method must be 

 hailed as a great advance." 



The floor should be scoured with 5 per cent, carbolic- 

 acid solution or 1 : 1000 bichlorid of mercury, and all the 

 wooden articles wiped off two or three times with the 

 same solution employed for the floor. In this scouring 

 no soap can be used, as it destroys the virtue of the 

 germicide. If a straw mattress was used, it should be 



1 Ve rein fiir 0(fentliche Gesundheitspflege, Berlin, April 26, 1897. 



