Disinfection of the Patient 187 



scantily and simply furnished room the lAoment an infectious dis- 

 ease is suspected. If, however, the infectious disease can already be 

 recognized, it is best not to move him. 



After the recovery or death of the patient the walls and ceihng 

 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, 

 tliey should be dampened with 1:1000 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. 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 solu- 

 tion, 5 per cent, carbolic acid solution, or 1:1000 bichlorid 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 mat- 

 tress 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 sterilizirig 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 hve or die, may be a means of spreading 

 the disease unless specially cared for. After convalescence the 

 body should be scoured with biniodid of mercury soap, bathed 

 with a weak bichlorid of mercury solution or with a 2 per cent, car- 

 bolic acid solution, or with 25-50 per cent, alcohol, before the pa- 

 tient 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 cosmoHn 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, being distributed through the atmos- 

 phere. Carbolated may be better than plain cosmolin, not because 

 of the very slight antiseptic value it possesses, but because it helps to 

 allay the itching which may accompany the desquamative process. 



After the patient is about again, common sense will prohibit 

 the admission of visitors until the suggested disinfect! ve measures 

 have been adopted, and after this, touching, and especially kissing 

 him, should be avoided for some time. 



The bodies of those that die of infectious diseases should be washed 

 in a strong disinfectant solution, and given a strictly private funeral. 

 If this be impossible, the body should be embalmed, sealed in the 

 coffin, and the face viewed through a plate of glass; the body is 



