Scarlet fever, (sometimes called scarlatina) and its prevention / by Wm. Budd.

  • Budd, William, 1811-1880.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scarlet fever, (sometimes called scarlatina) and its prevention / by Wm. Budd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    8/10 (page 8)
    Treatment, here, has the double advantage of greatly helping the recovery of the patient, and of largely adding to the safety of the attendants. After long and careful trial of various agents, I have finally settled upon a watery solution of Perchloride of Iron, as answering both indications better than anything else. Many medical men are in the habit of fumigating the sick room, either constantly or several times a day, with chlorine or sulphurous acid, pending the whole course of the fever. There can be no objection to this measure; but I do not myself attach much import- ance to it. Experience of the largest and most decisive kind has shown that chlorine—and I believe the observation applies equall3'^ to the other chemical agent—in the degree of atmospheric im- pregnation respirable by man, has no appreciable influence in pre- venting the spread of infectious disorders.* It is of the highest im- portance to know that such fumigations, where the disinfectant is necessarily very much diluted, are no substitute whatever for the precautions recommended here, the very essence of which is, that the chemical agent is brought to bear in a concentrated form and with destructive power on the poison as it emerges from the bodies of the sick. To complete the preventive code, immediately after the illness is over—^whether ending in death or recovery—the di’esses worn by the nurses (which, where possible, should be of linen, or some smooth thing) are washed or destroyed, and the bed and room that have been occupied by the sick are thoroughly disiofected. With these measures, when well and thoroughly done, the taint is finally extinguished. The success of this method, in my own hands, has been very remarkable. For a period of nearly twenty years, during which I have employed it in a very wide field, I have never known the disease spread in a single instance beyond the sick room, and in very few instances within it. Time after time, I have treated this fever in houses crowded, from attic to basement, with children and escaped infectionf The two elements in the method are, separation on * The following, among many other instances to the same purport, may be cited as strildng illustrations of the fact. Speaking of the great epidemic of Cholera at Moscow, Dr. Albers says—“ At the time when the Cholera Hospital was filled -with clouds of chlorine, then it was that the greatest number of the attendants were attacked.” Some years ago chlorine was tried at the Small-pox Hospital with a view of .arresting the progress of Erysipelasall offensive smeU was, as usual, overcome, but the power of communicating the disease remained behind. t One word should be said for the benefit of those who, hiiving yet escaped infection, are living in an infected neighbourhood. For persons so situated, it