Home › The Nursery And Sick-Room › POISONOUS FOOD

POISONOUS FOOD

Antidotes-Emetics and castor oil.

XXIII. Health-Board Disinfectants.

THE instructions of the National Board of Health in relation to disinfectants and their use, with explanations as to disinfectants and deodorizers, are valuable. We have in XIX given simple means of deodorizing and disinfection. Deodorizers destroy smells; they do not necessarily disinfect. Disinfectants do not necessarily have odors, and some of the most virulent germs, as typhoid germs, may not, in water, be apparent to the sense of taste or smell. Disinfectants destroy the poisons of infectious and contagious diseases.

Some disinfecting agents recommended by the Board are: "

1. Roll-sulphur (brimstone) for fumigation. "

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

3. Sulphate of zinc and common salt, dissolved together in water, in the proportions of four ounces sulphate and two ounces salt to the gallon; for clothing, bedlinen, etc."

XXIV. How to Use Disinfectants. "

1. IN THE SICK-ROOM. - The most available disinfectants are fresh air and cleanliness. "

The clothing, towels, bed-linen, etc., should, on removal from the patient, and before they are taken from the room, be placed in a pail of the zinc solution, boiling hot if possible. "All discharges should either be received in vessels containing copperas solution, or when this is impracticable, should be immediately covered with copperas solution. All vessels used about the patient should be cleansed with same solution. "

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

2. FUMIGATION. - Sulphur is the only practicable agent for disinfecting the house. The rooms to be disinfected must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and articles which cannot be treated with zinc solution, should be opened and exposed during fumigation. Close the rooms as tightly as possible, place the sulphur in iron pans, supported upon bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, set it on fire by hot coals, or with the aid of a spoonful of alcohol, and allow the rooms to remain closed for twenty-four hours. For a room ten feet square, at least two pounds of sulphur should be used; for larger rooms proportionally increased quantities. "

3. PREMISES. - Cellars, yards, stables, gutters, privies, cesspools, waterclosets, drains, sewers, etc., should be frequently and liberally treated with copperas solution. It is easily prepared by hanging a basket containing about sixty pounds of copperas in a barrel of water. "

4. BODY AND BED CLOTHING, ETC. - It is best to burn all articles which have been in contact with persons sick with contagious or infectious diseases. Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be treated as follows: "

Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, etc., should be treated with the boiling-hot zinc solution; introduce piece by piece; secure thorough wetting, and boil at least half an hour. "

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, and pockets turned inside out. "

Afterward they should be hung in the open air, beaten and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed mattresses, upholstered furniture, etc., 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. "

5. CORPSES.-These should be thoroughly washed with a zinc solution of double strength; should then be wrapped in a sheet, wet with the zinc solution, and buried at once. Metallic, metal-lined or air-tight coffins should be used when possible, certainly when the body is to be transported for any considerable distance." CHAPTER XXIII.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM FRIENDS ON HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.

I. VALUE OF CONDENSED INFORMATION. - II. ORIGIN OF OUR HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. - III. ECONOMY IN THE KITCHEN-WASHING DISHES. IV. THE DAMPER IN THE STOVE. - V. REGULATING COAL FIRES. VI. THE USE OF WASTE PAPER. - VII. CLEANING SOILED MARBLE, ETC. - VIII. VERMIN-