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windows are made to open, and that they are sufficiently opened.
Especially where any kind of infective fever has begun, it is essential,
both for patients and for persons who are about them, that the sickroom
and the sick-house be constantly traversed by streams of fresh
air.
9. The cleanliest domestic habits should be enjoined. Refuse
matters should be speedily removed or destroyed ; and things which
have to be disinfected or cleansed should always be disinfected or
cleansed without delay.
10. Special precautions of cleanliness and disinfection are necessary
with regard to infective matters discharged from the bodies of the
sick. Among discharges which it is proper to treat as infective are
those which come in cases of small-pox and scarlatina from the
affected skin; in cases of cholera and enteric fever from the intestinal
canal; in cases of diphtheria and scarlatina from the nose and throat;
likewise, in cases of any eruptive or other epidemic fever, the general
exhalations of the sick. The caution which is necessary with regard
to such matters must, of course, extend to whatever is imbued with
them; so that bedding, clothing, towels, handkerchiefs, and other
articles which have been in use by the sick may not become sources
of mischief, either in the house to which they belong or in houses to
which they are conveyed. So far as articles of this class can be
replaced by rags or things of small value, it is best to use such things
and burn them when they are soiled. Otherwise clothing and
infected articles should be subjected to the disinfectant of the sickroom
or be removed for disinfection by heat.
In enteric fever and cholera the evacuations should be regarded as
capable of communicating an infectious quality to any nightsoil with
which they are mingled in privies, drains, or cesspools; and after
such disinfection of them as is practicable, they should be disposed of
without delay and under the safest conditions that local circumstances
permit. They should not be thrown into any fixed privy receptacle,
and above all, they must never be cast where they can run or soak
into sources of drinking water.
11. All reasonable care should be taken not to allow infective
disease to spread by the unnecessary association of sick with healthy
persons. This care is requisite, not only with regard to the sick
house, but likewise with regard to schools and other establishments
wherein members of many different households are accustomed to
meet.
12. If disease begins in houses where the sick person cannot be
properly accommodated and tended, medical advice should be taken
as to the propriety of removing him to an infirmary or hospital.
Every Sanitary Authority should have in readiness a hospital for the
reception of such cases.