The Health of the Household
Few understand how unsafe it is to use articles which have been exposed to the infection of a contagious disease. Articles shut up in a chest or confined in a dark closet retain infection for many years. The secretary of one of our State boards of health quotes a case in Ohio where the clothing, toys, etc., of a child, dead of diphtheria, were carefully packed away in a chest. Fifteen years after, the mother died, and the chest was opened by her relatives; the contents were handled freely, and the result was an attack of diphtheria in this family, though no cases had been seen in that village for some time. In such instances all clothing, toys, etc., should be destroyed, unless of great value, then nothing should be packed away before the most complete disinfection has been accomplished. He says further: “I have known of a similar instance of the clothing and toys as well as the cradle used by a child that died of scarlet fever, acting, after nearly thirty years, as the means of conveying this disease to a later generation. So many instances have been brought to our notice while acting as medical inspectors of the State board of health, where toys, books, and clothing have been the agents of distributing disease, that we feel we can not be too urgent in the demand for the burning of everything so infected, unless for some important reason such articles must be preserved, when the most careful disinfection must be made, and also long exposure to the air. Every well-regulated household will have seasons for house cleaning. The good housewife will remove every particle of smoke and dirt from the ceiling. The floors will be washed, the rooms dusted, the whole house put in perfect order, yet all this work will not kill these little microscopic bacilli, the danger germs of disease. To do this the house must be thoroughly disinfected, and this disinfecting should precede or immediately follow house cleaning, that the house be put in proper sanitary condition until the next house cleaning takes place. To disinfect a house is a very simple matter. A few pounds of sulphur burned in each room is a safe and sure disinfectant. Take a large iron kettle, put four inches of sand in the bottom, set the kettle on four bricks, put in the kettle a shovel of live coals, throw on three or four pounds of powdered sulphur, shut up the room tight, and let it remain for twenty-four hours, then open and air for forty-eight hours, and the room will be ready for use. This will not only kill all the germs of12disease, but also those pests more annoying than dangerous,—moths, roaches, and bedbugs. A more modern way of disinfecting is by the use of formaldehyde. Boards of health in towns and cities have large and expensive machines for producing the vapor, but these are not absolutely necessary, excepting after very malignant and contagious diseases. By the use of a small kerosene stove the evaporation can be produced, and is sufficient to meet all requirements in dwelling-houses. Use formaldehyde eight ounces mixed with sixteen ounces of water, in each room. Formaldehyde candles are on the market, and are sufficient for small rooms and closets.—American Motherhood.