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28
As is well known to you, our present custom, one which has obtained
for many years, is to destroy by fire all flock beds, bolsters, and pillows
which have been used by persons suffering from Small Pox, Typhus,
or Scarlet Fever. These articles we replace at the cost of the vestry.
Feather beds we send to Messrs. Blyth, to be disinfected and purified.
The expense of purifying feather beds and replacing common bedding
amounted in 1878 to £221 9s. 6d., in 1879 to £117 4s. 0d., and in 1880
to £287 14s. l0d.
Now, there can be no doubt that the safest plan of dealing with clothes
and bedding tainted with specific infective matter is that of cremation, as
at present carried out. Of one thing there is no doubt: whatever process
we may determine to adopt for the future, there will be some so-called
beds, mere heaps of filthy rags, which it will be impossible to disinfect
by any other process than that of burning them. I should say that out of
every six beds dealt with, perhaps, one would be in this condition.
Fire is nature's great purifier, and our present method, though
absolutely safe as far as it goes, has the great disadvantage of not being
sufficiently thorough. We destroy merely the beds, and leave the
remainder of the clothing, carpets, and curtains, to take their chance as
carriers and distributors of infection. It is true we do something in the
way of disinfection by burning sulphur in the rooms, and as this is the
best, and indeed the only plan at my disposal, I invariably give directions
for having it carried out; but I have grave doubts as to its efficacy, and
regret to say that we find case after case of Small Pox recurring in houses
where it has been most carefully done. Now, in place of burning clothes
and bedding, there is, as is well known, a plan of baking them, and this
practice is defended on the ground that the poison of Small Pox, &c., is
destroyed by a heat a little above that of boiling water. It is now
customary in all hospitals for infectious diseases, and in many Metropolitan
parishes, to subject infected clothing, bedding, &c., to a temperature
ranging between 240° and 260 F°, in a close chamber, through which
heated air or steam is made to pass. After remaining some hours at this
temperature, the articles may be removed, and will be found free from
power to infect. If desired, the air can be charged with some special
germicide, such as sulphurous or carbolic acid, but this I do not consider
at all necessary.
The heat in apparatus of this kind may be produced in one of three
ways: 1st, by means of gas burners, as in Dr. Eansonle's; 2nd, by