DESTRUCTION OF BACTERIA. 
27 
equally as practical for the mouth and nasal discharges 
of diphtheria, tonsillitis, pneumonia, and cerebrospinal 
meningitis. 
Feces can be quickly and thoroughly destroyed by 
burning them or mixing them with boiling water. If 
chemical disinfectants are employed, formalin (io per 
cent.) or carbolic acid (5 per cent.) may be used. 
The amount of either of these solutions should be 
twice that of the stool. Chlorinated lime, so long used 
for stool disinfection, has no advantages over formalin 
or carbolic acid, and is not so easy to use. The urine 
may be disinfected in the same manner as the stools. 
Clothing, towels, napkins, and bedding should be 
soaked for one-half hour in a 5 per cent, solution of 
carbolic acid before leaving the sickroom to be 
laundered. Dishes, knives, forks, etc., should be 
immersed in 5 per cent, carbolic solution and then 
boiled. It seems hardly necessary to say that one set 
of dishes should be kept in the sickroom for the ex¬ 
clusive use of the patient, and cleaned there. 
Apartments occupied by persons sick with con¬ 
tagious or infectious disease should not be occupied 
again until the room and its contents have been 
thoroughly disinfected. In order to simplify this 
procedure a little forethought on the part of the nurse, 
in removing from the sickroom all articles not to be 
used, will assist a great deal. Carpets, upholstered 
furniture, hangings, pictures, and bric-a-brac can 
easily be spared from the room. At the conclusion 
of the illness by far the most effective means of ren- 
Feces 
Clothing 
Apart¬ 
ments 
