DISINFECTION. 423 



DISINFECTION OF BEDS AND CLOTHING. 



Articles of clothing and beds are best disinfected in suit- 

 able apparatus in live steam. If such an apparatus is not 

 available, exposure to air and sun must be resorted to or 

 rubbing with three per cent, carbolic acid. To purify arti- 

 cles by exposure to air, they must be hung for days in a 

 dry room and exposed as uniformly as possible upon all 

 sides to the rays of the sun. Even then the disinfection is 

 not trustworthy. The bedstead, articles of leather, and the 

 like, are rubbed off with five per cent, carbolic acid. For 

 the disinfection of clothing formalin (a forty per cent, solu- 

 tion of formaldehyd) has been warmly recommended. 

 The clothing should be loosely packed in a chest, and be- 

 tween its layers are placed strips of goods saturated with for- 

 malin. From thirty to fifty grams of formalin are required for 

 a suit of clothing. Disinfection is said to be completed 

 within two hours, and the disagreeable odor may be 

 removed by means of ammonia. 



DISINFECTION OF ARTICLES OF FOOD. 



The keeping clean of articles of food is especially a pro- 

 phylactic measure. These should not be permitted to stand 

 about in the sick-room, but they should be kept covered, 

 etc. Portions of food left unused by the patient are burned, 

 as well as articles of food that are known to have been in- 

 fected in other ways. Milk and other liquids are drunk 

 only boiled, as should also be drinking-water in times of 

 cholera-epidemic. 



DISINFECTION OF THE SICK-ROOM. 



A sick-room should not contain pictures, curtains, etc., 

 in fact any superfluous articles that only serve as dust-col- 

 lectors. After the termination of the illness the room of 

 the patient, and possibly the entire dwelling, should remain 

 undisturbed for about ten hours, to permit the dust to settle, 

 and then it should be thoroughly disinfected. In some large 

 cities this is undertaken by special establishments. Such 

 disinfecting stations should be established everywhere, for 



