ACUTE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



which was strictly enforced on the inhabitants. But it has not been 

 proved, on the contrary, it is much doubted by competent authority, 

 whether sulphate of iron, which so well removes the unpleasant smell 

 from privies, also interferes with the development and increase of the 

 cholera germs. The epidemological section of the Berlin Academy 

 of Medicine recommend the disinfection of body and bed linen by 

 boiling in water ; for the disinfection of privies, chloride of lime (ten 

 parts, in solution, to one hundred of faeces) ; for bed-pans, night-stools, 

 etc., they recommend a mixture of two parts of permanganate of soda, 

 forty-five parts of sulphate of iron, and fifty-three parts of water (ten 

 parts to one hundred of faeces, or a wineglassful for each person) ; for the 

 disinfection of dwellings where cholera patients have been sick, chlo- 

 rine gas. Physicians should also persuade the proper authorities to 

 have prepared sufficiently large and properly-constructed lazarettos, 

 well supplied with nurses, where patients with suspicious diarrhoea may 

 be separated from those with well-marked cholera ; they should urge 

 the supply of healthy nourishment to the poor by soup and eating 

 houses, and that the people may be informed, by temperate and simple 

 publications, of the danger they run by neglecting an ordinary, pain- 

 less diarrhoea. Lastly, where it is possible, places should be arranged 

 where the inhabitants of houses that have been attacked may find 

 shelter. 



The prophylactic rules for physicians to recommend to their own 

 patients, on the outbreak of a cholera epidemic, are as follows : since 

 there is far more danger in a city where cholera is prevalent, and still 

 more in a house where it has broken out, than in other places, it is 

 sensible for persons, who can make a long journey without great incon- 

 venience, to fly from the disease. Such persons should be sure 1, to 

 start on their journey soon enough ; 2, to go off as far as possible ; 

 3, not to return till the last trace of the disease has disappeared. We 

 should strictly forbid those who must remain from using a strange 

 privy. It is remarkable that this important and certainly not super- 

 fluous advice is not given in the cholera regulations published by 

 Griesinger, Pettenkofer, and Wunderlich. If I were writing regula- 

 tions for the cholera, before treating of disinfection of privies, I should 

 urge not to rely on it, and not to visit even a carefully-disinfected 

 privy that is used by strangers. There are many heads of families 

 who would not object to buying a night-stool for themselves and 

 family during a cholera epidemic. We should also let our patients be 

 careful about their diet; i e., avoid all food that is difficult of diges- 

 tion, and all articles of diet and drink that tend to produce diarrhoea. 

 Complete and sudden change of the mode of life is not advisable, and 

 we should allow the moderate use of good red wine and strong beer 



