View report page

85
particularly wanted if the disease in question be cholera or enteric
fever. The chemical agent should be used liberally over all exposed
surfaces from which filth has been removed. Unpaved earth close to
dwellings, if it be sodden with slops or filth, ought to be treated in
the same way.
5. Sources of water supply should be well examined. Water from
sources which can be in any way tainted by animal or vegetable
refuse, especially those into which there may be any leakage or filtration
from sewers, drains, cesspools, or foul ditches, ought no longer to
be drunk. Above all, where the disease is cholera, diarrhoea, or
enteric fever, it is essential that no impure water be drunk.
The liability of leaky water-pipes to act as land drains and to
receive foul matters as well as land drainage through their
leaks is not to be overlooked. And such leaky pipes,
running full of water with considerable velocity, are liable
to receive, by lateral insuction at their points of leakage,
external matters that may be dangerous. This latter fact
is not recognised so generally as it should be ; and ignorance
of it has probably baffled many inquiries in cases where
water services have in truth been the means of spreading
disease.
If, unfortunately, the only water which for a time can be got should
be open to suspicion of dangerous organic impurity, it ought at least
to be boiled before it is used for drinking, but then not to be drunk
later than 24 hours after it has been boiled. Filtering of the ordinary
kind cannot by itself be trusted to purify water. It cannot be too
distinctly understood that dangerous qualities of water are not
obviated by the addition of wine or spirits.
6. When there appears any probable relation between the distribution
of disease and of milk supplies, the cleanliness of dairies, the
purity of the water used in them, the health of the persons employed
about them, and the health of the cows that furnish milk should
always be carefully investigated. Even apart from any apprehension
of milk being concerned in a particular outbreak of disease, it is
desirable that English people should adopt the custom, which is
always followed in some continental countries, of boiling all milk at
once upon its reception into a house.
7. The washing and lime-whiting of uncleanly premises, especially
of such as are densely occupied, should be pressed with all practicable
despatch.
8. Overcrowding should be prevented. Especially where diseaes
has begun, the sick-room should, as far as possible, be free from
persons who are not of use to the patient.
Ample ventilation should be enforced. It should be seen that