House-drainage, sewerage and sewage disposal in relation to health / by Louis C.Parkes.

  • Parkes, Louis Coltman, 1857-1942.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: House-drainage, sewerage and sewage disposal in relation to health / by Louis C.Parkes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    water-closet seats and chamber utensils is much more readily effected by the urine than by the faeces, it is easy to under- stand how the hands of healthy persons may become infected by the handling of such objects; and, in conse- quence, how easy would be the transmission of infection in this manner, whilst the source of the mischief would in many instances be quite unrecognised. Other diseases which are transmissible through the medium of the waste discharges of the body are: Diph- theria—by mucous excretions, crusts, and membranes from the throat, mouth, and nose; Scarlet Fever—by the same channels, and possibly also by the urine in cases of scarla- tinal nephritis (the transmission of infection by the desquamating skin has been challenged, and must be re- garded as doubtful); Measles, Whooping Cough, Influenza, and Pneumonia—by discharges from the throat and air- passages ; Tuberculosis—by discharges from the lungs, kidneys, bowels, and ulcerating glands, in cases where these organs are specifically affected; various forms of septic inflammation due to discharges from various parts of the body similarly affected, or possibly due to filth of a-specific character; but of this not much with certainty is known. In regard to these various diseases, which are only ex- ceptionally transmissible by the bowel discharges, it may be said that whilst proper methods of sewage removal and scavenging have their due share, no doubt, as agents in prophylaxis, yet the really important matter is destruc- tion and disinfection of infective discharges as soon as they leave the body, and of all soiled articles of clothing, bedding, etc., and that we are only indirectly concerned with infectious diseases of this character under the heading of Sewering. What does seem to be fairly well established as the result