Sins against the laws of health : illustrated by the vital statistics of the Crosshill District : being a lecture delivered on behalf of the library of the Crosshill Young Men's Christian Association, 29th April, 1880 / by Eben. Duncan.
- Duncan, Eben.
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sins against the laws of health : illustrated by the vital statistics of the Crosshill District : being a lecture delivered on behalf of the library of the Crosshill Young Men's Christian Association, 29th April, 1880 / by Eben. Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![frerms are expelled from the body. When these contagious particles are dry and protected from sunlight, and from the free access of air, they may retain their virulent properties for years. ^Vhen they are moist and expo.seil freely to the inlluences of .<uii and air, they die very rapidly. By the constant washing of the atmosphere by rain during a wet season, such as last year was. the spread of these dhseases is greatly diminished. The effect of the sun’s rays in decontposing animal poison was strikingly shown by Dr. Kichardson of London. He exposed a bottle containing the, poison of a venomous snake, the cobra de cujiella, to the direct rays of the sun for three days, at the end of which time he found that it had been rendered (juite inocuous. Nature’s great puriliors and disinfectors are fresh air, rain, and sunshine. Scarlet fever is tlm contagious disease which, on the average, destroys the greatest number in this parish. The characteristic symptoms are sore throat, a red rash on the skin, and fever. After the fever subsides and the red eruption disappears, the scarf skin is shed from the body in thousands of ])articles. This is called desquamation of the skin. These particles of skin carry with them the contagious germs of the disease. The secretions of the throat and nose are also highly con- tagious. During the whole period of desquamation, which lasts usually from four to five weeks, until every particle of the old skin is shed, the patient is a dangerous person, so that every scarlet fever patient should be isolated for at least six._ .weeks, and then his house, his person, and his clothing thoroughly disinfected. Unfortunately, cases sometimes occur of such a mild character that the patient does not feel ill, having only a slight sore throat. Even if he docs con.-ult a physician, it is only when desquamation of the .-kin takes place, and he has been an active propagator of the disease for some time, that it is recognised as scarlet fever. Thus it is easy to vmderstand how children recovering fi'om mild attacks of the disease are permitted by parents to spread the contagion during their con- valescence. They are sent back to school or to play with their companions. They are taken to visit relatives by cal), or omnibus, or rail, and deposit these infectious particle.s by the way. The children of dairymen and farmers are allowed to run about among the open milk dishes, tilling the air of the a|iartnient with hundreds of j)oisonous particles, which idtimately settle down in thejiiijji-; or persons recovering from scarlet fever are allowed to milk the cows, the poisonous partjcles falling off their haud-s into the milk ; or again, children arc sent out with the milk cans while recovering from the disease, and distribute contagion and milk together from door to door. Articles of clothing, after being wrapped about a scarlet fever patient, are carefully laid pa.st in a drawer without disinfection, and have months and years after communicated the disease. A patient, while writing a letter to his friend with bauds which are desquamating, encloses iu the 11](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24920071_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
