CLOTHING, BEDDING, ETC. UTENSILS. 63 



It is much more efficient than any other method, and just as 

 cheap. 



Clothing, Bedding, etc. : All bedding, clothing, linen, nurse's 

 outer wearing apparel, and anything that may have come in 

 contact with the patient in any way, should be disinfected. 

 If of little value, it should be burnt. Otherwise soak in a 

 1 : 2000 bichloride or a 2 per cent, carbolic acid solution for 

 four hours, then boil thoroughly for one hour ; hang the 

 washing outdoors where there is plenty of air circulating, and 

 leave it there for a day. This will further cleanse the cloth- 

 ing and dispel any odor of carbolic acid which would other- 

 wise cling to it. Sunlight is also a disinfectant. It is cheaper 

 to burn a straw mattress than to attempt to disinfect it. 

 Clothing, etc., can also be sterilized by steam if the proper 

 apparatus is at hand. 



Patient : The body of the patient can be washed with a 

 very mild solution of bichloride. After each evacuation of 

 the bowels the nates are cleansed with a cloth or piece of 

 gauze wet with bichloride. The body of the convalescent is 

 treated in the same way. After the exanthematous fevers the 

 entire body is washed first in a hot bichloride solution and 

 then anointed with vaselin, plain or carbolated, olive oil, ben- 

 zoinated lard, or any other unguent. This will prevent the 

 scales from being distributed broadcast and lodging on the 

 clothing of the nurse, doctor, or members of the family, to be 

 carried to others. Such patients should also be isolated until 

 there is no longer any danger of infection. 



The dead : The body of a person dead of an infectious dis- 

 ease should be wrapped in a sheet thoroughly saturated 

 with either a 0.4 per cent, chloride of lime solution, 1 : 500 

 bichloride or a 5 per cent, carbolic acid solution. The body 

 should not be touched by any one, and an early burial is ad- 

 visable, and should be insisted upon if possible. Although 

 cremation is really the best disposition of such bodies, it is 

 not absolutely necessary. Esmarch has shown that when a 

 body is placed in the soil all the pathogenic bacteria die, prob- 

 ably because of the lack of oxygen or because decomposition 

 and putrefaction are inimical to their development. 



Utensils: All the eating utensils, combs, brushes, etc., used 



