On certain arrangements made in the city of Glasgow, 1866, with a view to the prevention of epidemic cholera : with an appendix / by W.T. Gairdner.

Date:
[1891?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On certain arrangements made in the city of Glasgow, 1866, with a view to the prevention of epidemic cholera : with an appendix / by W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    18/24 (page 16)
    APPENDIX. Abstract of Instructions Issued from the Sanitary Department, Glasgow, 1866, in Respect to Asiatic Cholera. I. Instructions for District Visitors in Time of Cholera or when Cholera is Threatened The object of these instructions was to place District Visitors in commu- nication, on the one hand, with the people, and, on the other hand, with the sanitary authorities, with a view to the observation and reporting of removable defects; the procuring of external cleansing; the removal of night soil; the use of personal influence as to cleansing and ventilation; the opening of windows, or at least their construction so as to open at the top, in accordance with the law; the use of whitewash where necessary, the materials being furnished by the authorities on requisition of the Visitor; the use of personal urgency upon the inhabitants as to cleanliness of person, of clothing, and of bedding; and, further, all possible instructions concern- ing the use of plain, wholesome food, and of clean, fresh water and milk, with cautions against the undue use of strong drinks. It was further made part of the duty of the District Visitors to inform the inhabitants that in all cases of diarrhoea, or of serious derangement of the stomach or bowels resembling cholera, persons should be recommended to go to bed, to keep quiet and warm, and to send instantly for medical advice. II. Instructions for Medical House-to-house Visitors in District* in which Cholera Prevails or Threatens to Prevail. This set of instructions was much in accordance with the preceding, but was specialized by the medical character of the Visitor, and had general application to what is called house-to-house visitation, so well under- stood and practised in former epidemics. III. Instructions on Disinfection, for Medical Officers, District Visitors, and others, in Case of Cholera, Choleraic Diarrhoea, and other Diseases of Like Character. This was a very detailed paper, involving all the principles of the germ- theory and of disinfection, as then understood, in reference to cholera— e.g., indicating that It has been ascertained by scientific investigation that cholera, although much less infectious or contagious (in the ordinary sense of the words) than such diseases as fever or smallpox, has the special property of communicating to the discharges from the bodies of the sick a dangerons quality ; that these discharges may endanger life by soiling bed- linen, or vessels, or the floor, or the hands of attendants, or privies and water-closets, or collections of ordure in open courts, sinks, ash-pits, dung- steads, or common sewers, or, finally, by sinking into the ground, or other- wise polluting the drinking water; and that the danger is not diminished,