CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 279 



When a patient has recovered from one of these contagious 

 diseases, before he is allowed to leave the sick-room, he 

 should be thoroughly bathed, and then dressed in an adjoin- 

 ing room if possible. All of the clothing, bed-linen, etc., 

 that has been used about the patient, should be thoroughly 

 boiled. Articles that cannot be so treated should be hung 

 about the room, and the room, after being made as tight 

 as possible by stuffing the cracks of the windows and doors 

 with sheet wadding, should be fumigated. This should be 

 done by burning at least two pounds of sulphur to every 

 thousand cubic feet of space. For instance, a room twelve 

 feet square and ten feet high would require nearly three 

 pounds. It is far better to use a little more than is required 

 than not quite enough. This fumigation is easily done by 

 using an old iron kettle, coal-hod or any other convenient 

 receptacle that will stand fire. The bottom of this should 

 be covered two or three inches deep with earth or ashes, and 

 on this the sulphur is placed. This can be readily lighted by 

 a cloth or piece of paper saturated with kerosene. This 

 kettle or other receptacle should of course be so placed as to 

 preclude any danger from fire, and left to burn out. The 

 room should remain closed at least twelve hours. At the 

 end of this time, if the fumigation has been properly done, 

 all germ life w^ill be destroyed. It is also well to fumigate 

 the rooms adjoining the sick chamber ; at least the one 

 throuo-h which the communication with the household has 

 been had should be thoroughly fumigated. Such precau- 

 tions as these agaiuvst the spread of contagious diseases are 

 not difficult or expensive, they only require care and thought 

 on the part of nurses and attendants, although it is all im- 

 portant that those precautionary measures may be carried 

 out intelligently ; that they know something of the cause of 

 contagion, and wherein the greatest danger lies, and it is for 

 this reason that I have spent so much of the evening in 

 trying to explain the generally accepted theory of the con- 

 tagious or preventable diseases. One can hardly expect to 

 teach in a single evening, in anything like a clear and con- 

 nected way, the whole of this theory and what we know of 

 these diseases with which sanitary .science has to contend, 

 for the subject is altogether too long for that ; neither is it 



