QUARANTINE 



205 



is the sewage and the larger is the plot of earth necessary to 

 purify it. Every summer visitor to the country should inves- 

 tigate the source of the drinking water, and the method of 

 disposing of the hotel sewage. If there is any possibility that 

 the sewage drains into the well, the hotel should be abandoned. 



PIG. 72. Showing how drinking water can be contaminated from cesspool < r) 

 and wash water (w). 



Quarantine. One of the duties of the Board of Health is 

 to enforce the quarantine laws in order to protect people from 

 unnecessary exposure to contagious diseases. The Board of 

 Health requires physicians to report immediately to the health 

 officers all cases of contagious diseases. As soon as a contagious 

 disease, such as diphtheria, is reported, a conspicuous placard 

 is placed on the house where the patient lives, and persons are 

 forbidden to enter or to leave the house. The germs of many 

 diseases like diphtheria are most active and apt to grow just 

 after they leave the body of the patient ; hence the greatest 

 danger from these germs occurs in the neighborhood of the 

 patient, either in the sick room or in the house. For this reasor 

 houses are quarantined. 



If a single child in a household has diphtheria, the other 

 children of the family must remain away from school although 



