. 



SCARLET FEVER. 45 



that every particle which flies from the roughened surface of the peeling skin is a 

 particle with an unlimited potentiality for mischief, and being carried by the air, or 

 in the folds of a garment, or even in a letter, may spread scarlet fever literally 

 throughout the world. ^Vo patient suffering from scarlet fever can be considered free 

 from infection until t/te process of peeling has absolutely ceased. While the disease is 

 in progress, every effort should be made to reduce the dangers to a minimum. The 

 patient should be moved to the top of the house, and the whole of the top floor, or 

 the whole of one division of the house, should be given up to the invalid and his 

 attendants, who should not be too numerous (the fewer the better), and who should 

 hold no communication (or as little as possible) with the other inmates of the house. 

 Over the door of the sick-room a curtain should be hung, and this curtain should be 

 kept constantly moistened with carbolic acid dissolved in water (half a pint of tke 

 common acid to two gallons of water). The bedroom should be kept thoroughly 

 aired, and in summer the windows must be liberally opened. The patient must be 

 kept clean, and the bed and body-linen be frequently changed. The change of linen 

 should be effected quietly, and the soiled linen, both of the nurses and the patient, 

 should be placed in earthenware pans filled with a strong solution of carbolic acid, 

 and provided with a cover. All excretions should be at once disinfected with 

 carbolic acid, and thrown away immediately. All plates, dishes, and other utensils 

 used by the patient should, when done with, be immersed in a disinfecting bath; and 

 the walls of the room, as well as the floor and furniture, should be cleansed every day 

 with a damp cloth. As to the patient himself, he must be kept perfectly clean. The 

 mouth and nose must be scrupulously cleaned by means of a camel's-hair brush, or a 

 syringe, with a weak solution of Condy's Fluid, or salt, or a strong solution of chlorate 

 of potash. It is a good plan also, and one highly recommended, to keep the surface 

 of the skin constantly greased with ordinary olive oil, to which a little carbolic acid 

 has been added. The hair should be cut short, and that which is cut off should be 

 burnt. If the patient t>e old enough or well enough to enjoy reading, or being read 

 to, it must be remembered that all his books, and, in fact, everything that cannot be 

 washed, must be burnt, and on no account be brought out of the sick-room. When 

 the patient is sufficiently recovered to leave his room, he should only go out 

 wrapped in a blanket, and be put at once into a warm bath, where the whole of the 

 body should be most carefully washed. He should then be dressed in a complete set 

 of clean clothes, and, presumably, he may then mingle with his friends without being 

 an object of terror to them. 



The room lately occupied by the patient must next receive especial attention ; 

 and first it should be disinfected by means of sulphur fumigation. This is done 

 in the following manner: Take an ordinary slop-pail, and half fill it with water; 

 then across the top of it place the fire-tongs. On the tongs lay the lid of an 

 old saucepan, and in this put half a pound or a pound of common brimstone 

 broken into lumps. Then shut all the windows closely, place a red-hot coal in the 

 middle of the sulphur, and immediately leave the room. Shut and lock the door, 

 and block up any chinks which may be left in it This manoeuvre causes the escape 

 of immense quantities of sulphurous acid gas (the gas which causes the choking 

 sensation when we light a sulphur match, and which is probably fatal to every living 



