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4
Sanitary Inspectors succeeded in obtaining the removal of
642 cases to the Hospitals of the Asylums Board. Doubtless
by the early removal of these infected people, the onward
progress of the epidemic received a severe check.
The rooms and premises which had been occupied by
patients suffering from Scarlet Fever were in all cases disinfected
by means of sulphur vapour. The process adopted
is a thorough one. The niches about the window and
the opening at the fireplace arc covered with strips and
sheets of pasted paper. A receptacle containing several
pounds of ignited sulphur is placed for safety in an open
iron vessel in the centre of the room. The door is then
closed, and every crevice secured. Unopened for twenty-four
hours, when entered the room is still misty with the vapour
of sulphur. An impalpable yellow powder, discolouring
the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, is found to have insinuated
itself into every nook and cranny. No animal or
vegetable life can survive this baptism of sulphur.
Lime washing, scouring, stripping and re-papering is
then ordered, and the work supervised by the inspector.
Articles of clothing and utensils which have been used by
the patient are steeped in a strong solution of carbolic acid.
The bedding in the meantime has been conveyed to the
wharf, and there, in the stove subjected to a moist heat
ranging from 300 to 330 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat at
which the stove is maintained is sufficiently high to scorch or
even ignite the linen or cotton fabric of the article exposed.
But the most delicate material is secured against the
destructive effect of a high temperature by the saturation of
the heated atmosphere with steam.
Whilst the process is in operation, so moist indeed is the
atmosphere, that should the doors of the stove be thrown open