Disease in children : a manual for students and practitioners.

  • Carmichael, James.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Disease in children : a manual for students and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    4; foction of the patient is all-important both in regard to the body and the clothing. For this purpose we make use of antiseptic baths and sponging, or apply oils or unguents to the surface of the body, and steep all the clothes when dis- used in 1 to 40 solution of carbolic acid. The floors and furniture should likewise be regularly washed with an antiseptic solution. In drain diseases, such as diphtheria, diarrhoea, or cholera, the drains should be carefully dis- infected, the water supply at the same time being carefully regarded. Sterilisation of food, by thorough cooking, is one of the most important means of disinfection, and will be afterwards alluded to more fully. This brings us to the consideration of heat as a disinfectant. It is one of the most valuable and certain agents for this purpose at our disposal. Linen clothes should be steeped for twelve hours in a solution of carbolic acid in water, 1 to 40, and thereafter boiled for one hour. Bedding, blankets, cloth clothes, or carpets, may be disinfected by steam at 212°, or dry heat, in which case the temperature must be raised to about 240°, as at this range it has been proved that even the spores of the anthrax bacillus are destroyed. By far the most reliable antiseptic solution for disinfecting purposes is that of mercuric chloride. One part in 5000 will destroy the spores of the anthrax bacillus in ten minutes. Carbolic acid is far inferior in disinfecting power to the mercuric solution. Carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, salicylic acid, although slow, are yet effectual after longer periods in destroying baciUi, but not the spores, excepting carbolic acid, which, in a solution of 1 to 20, is said to destroy their vitality at the end of twenty-four hours. The only two reliable gaseous disinfectants are chlorine and sulphurous acid, the former being the more powerful. The presence of moisture is necessary to their efficient action. Fumigation, as a perfect means of disinfection, is totally inadequate for the purpose. For disinfecting drains, carbolic acid, sulphate of iron, chloride of lime, and chloride of zmc are the most useful substances.