American Red cross textbook on elementary hygiene and home care of the sick / by Jane A. Delano and Isabel McIsaac.

  • Delano, Jane A., 1862-1919.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: American Red cross textbook on elementary hygiene and home care of the sick / by Jane A. Delano and Isabel McIsaac. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sider the channels we may easily understand how great a proportion of infection takes place through the mouth—the germs of typhoid fever, tubercu- losis, diphtheria, pneumonia, influenza, cholera, and probably scarlet fever, measles and infantile paraly- sis, may all enter the body through the mouth—and when we still further consider that nothing goes into our mouths but what we convey to them,— even the quality of the air we breathe we may con- trol to a certain extent,—we will still further under- stand that our escape from communicable diseases depends very largely upon our personal habits. Daily baths lessen the danger of infection through abrasions of the skin; clean hands and finger-nails greatly lessen the danger of infective materials being conveyed to the mouth; clean teeth and regular visits to the dentist, clean food and clean surroundings are all of the greatest importance in preventing infections of all kinds. In the chapters upon personal and household hygiene will be found further reference to the con- veyance of infectious materials through bad house- keeping methods and unclean personal habits. Quarantine is “the adoption of measures to pre- vent the introduction of diseases from one locality to another.” The necessity for restrictions in certain diseases has been recognized from the earliest times, leprosy