cleanliness go a great ways in preventing the catching and in reducing the severity of any disease.

Personal cleanliness, personal good habits and good health help to ward off many diseases.

We have selected the six diseases first named because they are the chief ones to which so many are exposed, and which, therefore, most need guarding against.

We may name some general rules which apply with nearly equal force to all of these diseases:

1. When any one has sore throat, foul breath, or eruption, however slight, he should be kept apart from all except an adult nurse or attendant, until it is known whether he has some one of the communicable diseases. If there has been known exposure to any communicable disease, special precaution should be used. Mild cases, just because they do not prevent moving about, often communicate these diseases. Scarlet fever does not, as a rule, occur sooner than six days, and diphtheria in from six to twelve days. Small-pox and measles not sooner than twelve days. There should be early diagnosis of what the disease is by some skilled person, even when the attack is mild and does not require much subsequent attendance.

2. Every person suspected or known to be sick of small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, &c., should be isolated from all other persons except necessary attendants. The garments of the patient and those of the attendants should be of such material as will admit of disinfection, boiling and washing. Persons entering or remaining in the room should not take off such garments as hats or coats or gloves, and put them on again in the room, as they thus serve to enfold and convey infective particles. Nurses should have occasional baths and be scrupulously clean, and, if compelled at any time to mingle with others, should first, after washing in some mild disinfectant, expose themselves a few moments to the open air. Close cutting of the hair and beard is often advisable. Women should have the hair covered by a cap; men when nursing, especially in small-pox, should remove the whiskers. It is quite certain that the smaller domestic animals, as the dog and the cat, convey, and may even contract some of these diseases. They should never be allowed in the sick room. No food, or milk or water which has stood in the sick room should be partaken of

by others. Dishes long in the room should be rinsed in some disinfecting fluid before removal.

3. The bedroom of a person sick with small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, &c., should be cleared of all unnecessary furniture, clothing or drapery, and of all kinds of bed or bedding that are not needed. Articles in the room when the sickness had fully begun, should not be removed to another room until they have been in the open air. Often it is best to remove the carpets, as rugs will answer and are more easily cleansed afterward. The room should never be less than 10x14, with an eight or nine-foot ceiling, and capable of having plenty of light admitted. It is better not to have the bed put in a corner or against walls. It is important that windows be so located as to admit of good ventilation without draught on the patient. If a piece of board is placed under the length of the lower sash so as to cause an opening between the lower and upper sash, or if there is at the top of the window a wire gauze slanting toward the ceiling, or any other arrangement for letting in air and yet interrupting a direct downward draught, much air can be admitted without any current being felt.

4. Discharges from the nose or the mouth, and from the throat and lungs, should be received upon cloths or rags or soft paper, so as to be quickly burned, or put into cups or vessels containing some one of the disinfectants hereafter named. Handkerchiefs are convenient, but too often are left to become soiled, or to convey contagion. After they are soiled, at once put them in very hot water or some disinfectant.

The discharges from the bowels and the bladder should be passed into vessels containing a pint of disinfectant, and without undue delay be buried at least one hundred feet from any well. When this is impracticable, the use of the disinfectant should be more plenty, and the removal to the common receptacle should be speedy.

The soiled bed or body linen or towels of the room should not be mingled with other soiled clothes, or put into the general wash or wait for the weekly washing, but should be covered over with a disinfecting fluid or promptly cleansed by hot water, and by the usual laundry methods.

5. No person who has recovered from small-pox, scarlet fever or diphtheria should mingle with others until there has been washing of

of the whole body and entire change of clothing. The time for return to society must be regulated by the physicians.

Two weeks after complete recovery from diphtheria or measles is usually sufficient. But by complete recovery-we mean this lapse of time after all symptoms have disappeared. After small-pox or scarlet fever, a longer period must elapse, since the skin is for some time separating its contaminated particles. From four to six weeks is the time generally named, but very much depends as to time upon the home cleanliness of the family and of the person.

When death has occurred from any communicable disease, the body should be washed with a chloride of lead or zinc, or corrosive sublimate solution of double strength of that described under disinfectants, and then be wrapped in a sheet wet with the same. Shavings or "excelsior," moistened with a disinfectant, may be placed under the body. In no case should the body be exposed to view. In most cases it is desirable to avoid a public funeral, and especially the attendance of children. Much depends on the skill and knowledge of the undertaker. (See Third Report, pp. 111-121.)

DISINFECTION OF HOUSE AND SURROUNDINGS.-The first requisite is the most thorough exposure of the room to air, unless it is in such very close proximity to other buildings as that it is best to fumi

gate first.

The following directions will guide as to materials and methods of disinfection.

DISINFECTANTS TO BE EMPLOYED.-1. Roll sulphur (brimstone) or chlorine gas for fumigation.

2. Sulphate of iron (copperas) dissolved in water in the proportion of one and a half pounds to the gallon; for soil, sewers, etc.

3. (Zinc solution) sulphate of zinc and common salt, dissolved together in water in the proportion of four ounces sulphate and two ounces of salt to the gallon; for clothing, bed linen, etc.

4. Thymol solution.-Two drams of thymol (crystals) dissolved in ten drams of alcohol, twenty drams of glycerine, and one gallon of

hot water.

5. Solution of corrosive sublimate.-One ounce to eight gallons of

water.

6. Commercial sulphuric acid.—One pint to eight gallons of water.

HOW TO USE DISINFECTANTS IN THE SICK-ROOM.—The most available agents are fresh air and cleanliness. The clothing, towels, bed linen, etc., should at once, on removal from the patient, and before they are taken from the room, be placed in a pail or tub of the zinc solution, boiling hot if possible.

Unnecessary furniture-especially that which is stuffed-carpets and hangings, when possible should be removed from the room at the outset; otherwise, they should remain for subsequent fumigation and treatment.

All discharges should either be received in vessels containing copperas solution, or, when this is impracticable, should be immediately covered therewith. All vessels used about the patient should be cleansed with the same solution.

One-half pound of sulphate of iron (copperas or green vitriol), or one ounce of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), or one ounce of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), or one ounce chloride of zinc (butter of zine), or one ounce of chloride of lime (bleaching powder), put to a quart of water will answer for this purpose.

FUMIGATION with sulphur is a practical method for disinfecting the house. For this purpose the rooms to be disinfected must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and other articles which cannot be treated with zinc solution, should be opened and exposed during fumigation, as directed below. Close the room as tightly as possible, place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a litttle water, set it on fire by the hot coals or with the aid of a tablespoonful of alcohol or saltpetre, and allow the room to remain closed for twelve hours. For a room about ten feet square, at least two pounds of sulphur should be used; for larger rooms, proportionately increased quantities, placed at two or three points.

To disinfect an ordinary room with chlorine gas: having tightly closed all the openings of the room, place in it an earthen dish containing four ounces of peroxide of manganese. Pour on this one pound of strong muriatic acid, being careful not to breathe the fumes. When certain that continuous liberation of chlorine is taking place, leave the room and close the door.

Cellars, yards, stables, gutters, privies, cesspools, water-closets, drains, sewers, &c., should be frequently and liberally treated with copperas solution. The copperas solution is easily prepared by hang

ing a basket containing about sixty pounds of copperas in a barrel of water, or by dissolving in hot water a few pounds of copperas.

Corrosive sublimate is cheap and has excellent disinfectant properties, and can be used the same as the iron or zinc sulphates. The vessel containing it should be marked "poison."

Sulphuric acid has been found very effective for sprinkling and general disinfection.

Where a disinfectant wash of pleasant odor is desired for common use by the person sick or the attendant, the thymol solution, derived from thyme and some other plants, answers a good purpose.

We have not especially referred to carbolic acid and other phenol compounds, because, while useful, they are not preferable to those already named.

BODY AND BED-CLOTHING, &c.-It is often best to burn articles which have been in contact with the persons sick with contagious or infectious diseases (and especially if the disease be small-pox). Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be treated as follows:

a. Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, &c., should be treated with the boiling-hot zinc solution. Introduce piece by piece, secure thorough wetting and boil for at least half an hour.

b. Heavy woolen clothing, silks, furs, stuffed bed-covers, beds and other articles which cannot be treated with the zinc solution, should be hung in the room during fumigation, their surfaces thoroughly exposed, pockets being turned inside out. Afterward they should be hung in the open air, beaten and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed mattresses, upholstered furniture, &c., should be cut open, the contents spread out and thoroughly fumigated. Carpets are best fumigated on the floor, but should afterward be removed to the open air and thoroughly beaten.

After fumigation it is desirable to cleanse all wood-work with soft soap and hot water, to thoroughly brush hard or papered walls and to whitewash the rest. A thorough, general house-cleaning is desirable.

Circular VIII. of this Board, as contained in the third and fourth reports of the Board, pages 85 and 260, gives other important directions as to cleanliness and disinfection.

The question whether beds can be safely fumigated and re-used, will depend upon the amount of soiling or use. All things which are not to be or are found not capable of being thoroughly cleansed, should