I400 THE ENTEROIDEA GROUP OF TROPICAL FEVERS 



they should be instructed how to act when it occurs, in order that 

 there may be no delay. The nurse should also be warned to be 

 careful as to the disinfection of her own hands. Nurses who are 

 to attend enteric fever cases should be selected from among those 

 who have been vaccinated, in order to prevent the possibility of 

 infection ; failing this, a course of intestinal disinfection at the end 

 of nursing a case of enteric fever is not without its benefits, as 

 many nurses contract the disease. 



The patient should be sponged all over with tepid water twice a 

 day, in the morning and in the evening, and this may be repeated 

 if the temperature rises above 103° F. An excellent plan is to add 

 to the water a little of a lotion of thymol 40 grains, spirits of 

 lavender 2 ounces, rectified spirits of wine 3 ounces, dilute acetic 

 acid 3 ounces, in 16 ounces of rose-water. The patient generally 

 finds this admixture to be most refreshing. 



From the first the back should be carefully inspected and dried, 

 and dusted with a powder composed of boric acid, zinc oxide, and 

 starch, or some similar powder. Any irritated region should be 

 bathed with rectified spirits. 



The mouth must be carefully attended to, and a mouth-wash of 

 glycoth5m[ioline, listerine, or other antiseptic mouth-wash, must be 

 used, while the teeth should be carefully cleaned by the nurse by 

 means of a small stick carrying a little cotton-wool. 



The bed-pan or slipper and the urine-bottle must be used through- 

 out the illness and the early part of the convalescence. 



When the temperature is high, a light ice-bag to the head is useful. 



3. Diet. — ^With regard to the diet, the patient should not be un- 

 duly starved, but should be given liquid food in small quantities 

 at stated intervals. The best basis for the dietary is good chicken- 

 broth and milk, and special attention should be paid to the fact 

 that the liquid actually given to the patient is chicken-broth, and 

 not some greyish warm water, with yellow fat floating on the sur- 

 face. To this broth some Plasmon may be added, if desired. With 

 regard to the milk, it should be boiled and diluted in the proportion 

 of I to 2 with either soda-water, Perrier-water, lime-water, or barley- 

 water, and attention should be paid as to whether it is properly 

 digested or not by examining the fseces. If it is not digested, it 

 must be replaced by malted milk, zymonized or peptonized milk, 

 or by whey. Junket and weak tea may also be used. The patient 

 should be given plenty of water to drink, either plain or as albumen- 

 water, and it is very soothing to occasionally rinse out the mouth 

 with soda-water. But no very warm or very cold foods or drinks 

 should be given. 



4. Medical Treatment. — The less medicine given to a person 

 suffering from uncomplicated and mild enteric fever the better for 

 the patient. 



Some mild medicine — e.g., an intestinal antiseptic, or quinine in some 

 form — is often given — e.g., the quinine and chlorine made by pouring about 

 30 minims of strong hydrochloric acid upon 30 grains of chlorate of potash. 



