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DRAINS, &c.—All closets, sinks and drains should be
kept clear, and be properly trapped from the sewer. They
should be flushed daily during the summer. Whenever there
is any infectious disease, or even a case of diarrhœa, in the
house, some chloride of lime, or green copperas, or carbolic
acid, should be added to the flushing water as a disinfectant.
Care should be taken that all traps are properly fixed, covered
and supplied with water—otherwise the drain is not trapped.
Rats inside a house generally show defective drains close at
hand.
CISTERNS, &c.—All cisterns and water-butts should be
kept clean and covered over, Wooden butts should be
pitched inside. If the waste pipe is connected with the
drain or soil pipe, it should be disconnected, and converted
into an overflow or warning pipe; otherwise the water may
become polluted by foul air, to the danger of health and life.
WASTE PIPES, &c.—Bath or sink wastes, and rainwater
pipes should be disconnected from the drain, and made
to discharge in the open air, over a trapped stoneware gulley.
FRESH AIR, &c.—Houses should be kept clean. Plenty
of fresh air should be admitted by opening windows. Overcrowding
should be avoided, especially in sleeping rooms.
DIET, &c.—Every person should live regularly and temperately.
Stimulants are injurious. Intemperance is dangerous.
There is no objection to vegetables, if gocd, or to
ripe fruit, if sound and eaten in moderation. All stale, or
over-kept fruit, fish, meat, and vegetables, should be shunned.
Great care should be taken to give no sour or stale food to
children. The greatest pains should be taken to ensure
pure water for drinking purposes.
DIARRHŒA, &c.—Every person attacked by diarrhœa,
especially if without pain, should attend to himself, and
obtain proper medicine. When young children suffer from
watery purging in summer, medical aid should be sought
without delay.
DISINFECTION, &c.—ln all infectious diseases, and
especially in enteric or Typhoid fever, and in Cholera,
every-thing that passes from the sick person should be
received into vessels containg half-a-pint of a solution of
green copperas, made by dissolving one pound of the
copperas in a gallon of water. In ordinary Diarrhœa the
same course is recommended as a prudent precaution.