122 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



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 i : 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 

 burned and the cover boiled. If a hair mattress was 

 used, it can be steamed or baked by the manufacturers, 

 who generally have ovens for the purpose. Curtains, 

 shades, etc., should receive proper attention; but, of course, 

 the greater the precautions exercised in the beginning, 

 the fewer the articles which will need attention in the 

 t-iid. They should be "removed before the case has 

 developed. 



Strehl has succeeded in demonstrating that when 10 per 

 cent, formalin solution is sponged upon artificially infected 

 curtains, etc., the bacteria are killed by the action of the 

 disinfectant. This knowledge will be an important ad- 

 junct to our means for disinfecting the furniture of the 

 sick-chamber. 



T/ir patient, whether he lives or dies, may also 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, alco- 

 hol, before the patient is allowed to mingle with society, 

 and the hair should either be cut off or carefully washed 



