PRACTICAL DISINFECTION 447 



Disinfection in or after Special Diseases 



Disinfection after Phthisis. — The following statement was 

 drawn up in 1901, by Drs Newsholme, Niven, and the writer, for 

 the National Association for the Prevention of Consumption and 

 other forms of Tuberculosis. It may serve as a basis for practical 

 disinfection of rooms, etc., after phthisis : — 



" The necessity for disinfection in consumption is based on well- 

 established facts. The essential cause of consumption and of all 

 other forms of tuberculosis is a living microbe, the B. tuberculosis, 

 though the condition of the bodily health of the individual greatly 

 influences the resistance to the disease and the prospect of recovery 

 from it. 



" The disease is always contracted by taking into the system the 

 microbes causing it, which are derived solely from persons or 

 animals suffering from the same disease. These microbes may be 

 taken in infected milk or less commonly in infected flesh. 



"The most frequent source of infection, however, is the dis- 

 charges and particularly the phlegm (spit or expectoration) of a 

 consumptive person. These discharges whilst moist are not likely 

 to be scattered, but if allowed to dry they become broken up into 

 dust, and are then extremely dangerous. There is little or no risk 

 of contracting consumption directly from the breath of a consumptive 

 person, but the phlegm infects everything upon which it falls — 

 handkerchiefs, books, papers, linen, floors, carpets, furniture, etc., 

 and is then readily inhaled by healthy persons. This is the chief 

 means by which consumption is spread from person to person. 



" On these facts rest the important question of disinfection. In 

 preventing a consumptive person from spreading the disease, two 

 sets of preventive measures are required: — 1st, the removal or 

 destruction of the infective matter already disseminated by the 

 patient's discharges, especially by his phlegm; and, 2nd, the 

 prevention of future dissemination. For the latter purpose the 

 main object is not to permit any discharge to become dry before 

 being destroyed. Before the consumptive person has learned the 

 personal precautions which must be taken, and up to the time when 

 he has been trained to carry them out carefully, he has probably 

 distributed a considerable amount of infective matter. This is 

 especially liable to accumulate iii a dangerous form at home, where 

 the space is small, and light and ventilation are defective. Infective 

 particles will be found in greatest abundance on and near the floors, 

 on ledges, and in room-hangings. But the personal clothing and 

 bedclothes will also have become infected. Hence it is necessary 

 to disinfect the floor, walls, and ceiling of the rooms occupied by 

 the patient, as well as the furniture, carpet, bedclothes, etc. 



