Sterilization and Disinfection 



much trouble and money for his patient by ordering his 

 immediate isolation in an uncarpeted, scantily, and simply 

 furnished room the moment an infectious disease is sus- 

 pected. However, if before his removal the patient ha's 

 occupied another bed, its clothing should be promptly dis- 

 infected. 



After the recovery or death of the patient the walls and 

 ceiling of the room should be sprayed with a formaldehyd 

 solution, or the room sealed and filled with the vapor. 

 If they are hung with paper, they should be dampened with 

 i : 1000 bichlorid of mercury solution before new paper is 

 hung. 



Strehl has demonstrated 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 is an important adjunct to our means of disinfecting 

 the furniture of the sick-chamber. 



The floor should be scoured with 40 per cent, formaldehyd 

 solution, 5 per cent, carbolic acid solution, or i : 1000 bi- 

 chlorid of mercury solution (no soap being used, as it 

 destroys the bichlorid of mercury and prevents its action), 

 and all the wooden articles wiped off two or three times 

 with one of the same solutions. 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 usually have ovens for the purpose of destroying moths, 

 but which answer for sterilizing closets. Curtains, shades, 

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

 greater the precautions exercised in the beginning, the fewer 

 the articles that will need attention in the end. 



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 scoured with biniodide of 

 mercury soap, 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 patient 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 cosmolin once daily, 

 beginning before desquamation begins and having the 

 unguent well rubbed in, in order to prevent the particles of 

 epidermis, in which the specific contagium probably occurs, 



