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99
Appendix B.
An Examination as to the efficiency of Sulphur
Dioxide Gas for the Disinfection of Rooms.
The object of disinfection is to check the spread
of infection both in the family or household, and in
the surrounding district. Of the success achieved in
the latter direction no reliable evidence is either
available, or likely to be obtainable, in a district of
such complex relations as a Metropolitan Parish. On
the other hand the success in limiting the spread of
infection in the household can be gauged with
some degree of certainty by examining the conditions
under which subsequent cases occur in such
household or family. Before, however, proceeding
to do this, it will be necessary to clearly set out
certain considerations material to the inquiry, which
must be carefully weighed before any reliable conclusions
can be arrived at.
The term "primary" and "secondary," as used
in this Report, refer respectively to the first and each
and all subsequent cases notified in 1897, from any
given house or tenement. The circumstances
nected with the primary cases will, for the present
purposes, be ignored, except in a few special instances.
Disinfection of the sick-room is done as a matter
of routine after smallpox, diphtheria, membranous