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MODE OF SPREAD OF INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



Disinfection. 



Disinfection 

 of excreta. 



Disinfection 

 of linen, beds, 

 &c. 



Apparatus for 

 disinfecting 

 by means of a 

 current of 

 fcteam. 



and this is clone by insisting that all food must be 

 cooked, and that all water must be filtered through a 

 proper apparatus. Where sources of infection are pre- 

 sent we must also employ the general precautions 

 referred to above. An extremely important measure 

 consists in making arrangements to remove dejecta and 

 waste water rapidly and to get rid of gutters, and thus 

 to render it impossible for the surface of the surrounding 

 soil, the wells, and the watercourses to become con- 

 taminated with dejecta. 



The prevention of fresh sources of infection by means 

 of a rational method of disinfection, forms the most im- 

 portant part of the prophylactic measures in the majority 

 of the infective diseases. This method applies to the 

 following materials, and is carried out by the- following 

 means : 



1. The infective excreta of the patient (sputa, dejecta, 

 pus, &c.) should be mixed with 5 per cent, carbolic 

 acid (or if necessary with commercial fuming hydro- 

 chloric acid), and allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, 

 each motion being disinfected at once. The receptacles 

 must be repeatedly washed with similar solutions. In- 

 fective material on the body of the patient must also be 

 removed by means of carbolic acid, or sublimate solu- 

 tions. 



2. The linen and bed linen of the patient, dressings, 

 feather beds, woollen blankets, mattresses, straw beds,* 

 handkerchiefs, curtains, carpets, &c., should be dis- 

 infected by a current of steam at 100 C. Various 

 apparatuses have been constructed in recent years for 

 carrying out this method of disinfection, and of these 

 three have been tested and found satisfactory. These 

 are the apparatus made by Schimmel & Co. in Chem- 

 nitz, the stationary and portable apparatuses made by J. 

 L. Bacon in Berlin, and lastly that by Eietschel & 

 Henneberg. So far as possible these various machines 



* It is usually beat to burn straw beds and other worthless materials. 

 In practice, however, this cannot always be done without risk of 

 infection, and in that case it is simplest to disinfect these mateuials 

 also in the steam apparatus. 



