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GENERAL PRECAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED.
Rooms in houses occupied by consumptive persons should be kept free from
damp, and be well lighted, and well ventilated—sleeping rooms especially.
Fresh air and light are preventives of consumption. Bright sunshine
kills the germs of tuberculosis.
Don't block up the chimney of the bedroom. Open the windows and admit
fresh air as much as possible, by day and night.
Cleanliness and good sanitary surroundings are all-important, both for the
prevention and for the cure of consumption.
Rooms, passages, and staircases should be kept free from dust. Where there
is dust there is danger. Don't stir up dust: use damp tea leaves, or
damp sawdust, when sweeping floors, and damp cloths for dusting; boil
the dusters after use, and burn the tea leaves and sawdust.
Milk should be boiled for one minute, or it may be heated in a double saucepan
for at least five minutes after the water boils in the outer saucepan.
In either way the germs of tuberculosis, if present, will be
destroyed. It is a wise precaution to treat milk, at all times, as
directed, before use. Meat should be thoroughly cooked.
After the death of a consumptive person, or after removal of a consumptive
person from one house to another, the room occupied by such person should
not be occupied again until it and its contents shall have been cleansed
and disinfected. If the assistance of the Vestry is desired for disinfection
of rooms, carpets, rugs, bedding, clothing, etc., make application
to the Medical Officer of Health, at the Town Hall. In all cases in
which there may be proved inability to pay, disinfection will be done
free of cost Persons in charge of consumptive patients should apply
to their regular Medical Attendant, or to the Medical Officer of Health
at the Town Hall, for advice as to the disinfection which should be
carried out, from time to time, during the illness of the patient.
By direction of your Vestry the leaflet was sent to
medical practitioners, clergymen, &c. There was no further
demand for it—save that one clergyman responded to the invitation
to apply for copies for his district visitors—although
it was intimated that the leaflet would be supplied on application
for the guidance of the head of any household in which
there might be a sufferer from consumption. No further
action was taken.
[T ABLES,