172 Sterilization and Disinfection 



The Patient, whether he live or die, may be a means 

 of spreading the disease unless specially cared for. After 

 convalescence the body should be bathed with a weak 

 bichlorid of mercury solution or with a 2 per cent, carbolic 

 acid solution, or with 25-50 per cent, alcohol, before the pa- 

 tient is allowed to mingle with society, and the hair should 

 either be cut off or carefully washed with the disinfecting 

 solution or an antiseptic soap. In desquamative diseases 

 it seems best to have the entire body anointed with cosmo- 

 lin once daily, the unguent being well rubbed in, in order to 

 prevent the particles of epidermis, in which the specific con- 

 tagium probably occurs, being distributed through the atmos- 

 phere. Carbolated may be better than plain cosmolin, not 

 because of the very slight antiseptic value it possesses, but 

 because it helps to allay the itching which may accompany 

 the desquamative process. 



After the patient is about the room again, common sense 

 will prohibit the admission of visitors until the suggested dis- 

 infective measures have been adopted, and after this, touch- 

 ing, and especially kissing him, should be avoided for some 

 time. 



The bodies of those that die of infectious diseases should be 

 washed in a strong disinfectant solution, and should be given 

 a strictly private funeral. If this be impossible, the body 

 should be sealed in the coffin and only the face viewed 

 through a plate of glass. In my judgment, the body is 

 best disposed of by cremation, though it seems to be erro- 

 neous to suppose that a dead body can remain for an in- 

 definite period a source of infection. Ksmarch * made a 

 series of laboratory experiments to determine the fate of 

 pathogenic bacteria in the dead body, and from them con- 

 cludes that in septicemia, cholera, anthrax, malignant edema, 

 tuberculosis, tetanus, and typhoid fever the pathogenic bac- 

 teria all die sooner or later, more rapidly during active 

 decomposition than during preservation of the tissues. Lack 

 of oxygen may also be a cause of their disappearance. 

 * " Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," 1893. 



