London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hornsey 1911

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hornsey, Borough of]

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Do not spit into a pocket handkerchief; it is better to spit
over a street gulley than into an ordinary pocket handkerchief.
6. All persons who have a chronic cough and spit should
carry out the above precautions.
7. Consumptives should not kiss on the lips.
The eating utensils which they have used should be at once
thoroughly cleansed before further use.
8. If these precautions are strictly observed a consumptive
person runs no risk whatever of infecting others, and adds considerably
to his own chances of recovery.
9. The sleeping room of a consumptive should be kept rigorously
clean. If, by any chance, the pillows or bed clothes have
been soiled with sputum they should be at once disinfected by
steam, or washed with boiling water.
Dust should not be allowed to accumulate anywhere in the
bedroom. The room should be kept well aired and the bedroom
window should, whenever possible, be kept slightly open. There
is no reason why one other person should not occupy the same
room, though not the same bed, if the above precautions are
carefully carried out.
10. Persons who have contracted consumption, or who have
a family history of the disease, should not live or sleep in a room
which is damp, crowded, badly lighted, or badly ventilated.
11. It will often happen when a consumptive person's
attention is first called to these rules that a considerable amount
of infective dust will have collected in the rooms which he has
occupied. These must be carefully disinfected.
Articles, including wearing apparel, carpets, hangings, bed
clothes, and mattresses, which admit of such treatment, will be
disinfected at the Corporation Station free of charge, on application
being made to the Medical Officer of Health. Articles' which
adnrit of washing with boiling water may be so washed. Other
articles, as well as the floor, walls, and ceiling, should be thoroughly
cleaned down with a disinfectant.
Having once got the rooms quite clean, it becomes easy,
though necessary, to keep them so. In order to effect this, the
floors and skirtings of rooms used bv consumptive persons should