The hygiene of the infectious fevers / by J.W. Miller.

  • Miller, J. W.
Date:
1880
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hygiene of the infectious fevers / by J.W. Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tions, so far from terminating the hardship, only shifts it to other shoulders, burdening not merely one other family, but probably many, and causing to some, who might otherwise have escaped, ; perhaps lifelong infirmity or even death. That is no exaggera- I tion, because if, for example, a scarlatinal patient return too soon or Avith infected clothes to a crowded school, the disease will ; almost certainly spread; and if, say, twenty or thirty cases result, i it is very probable that two or three will terminate fatally, a very . ordinary mortality being 12 per cent., and it is occasionally much I i higher. The carelessness which so widely prevails is, however, I \i am persuaded, much more a consequence of defective knowledge II than of wilful recklessness or indifference to the welfare of others ; . and this need not occasion much surprise while so much contradic- : tion is ap])arent amongst ourselves. All education of the people t on matters of health must emanate primarily from the medical : profession; and it can hardly be denied that we could with much i; more effect both diffuse sound knowledge and enforce sound ] practice were we to show a more united front ourselves. To begin at the beginning, then. Is infection a fact ? That we f are unanimous on this point may be taken for granted; but the t contagium should be regarded much more than it is, not as some r mysterious influence, nor even a gaseous emanation, but as - con- s sisting of minute particles of solid matter This is absolutely } proved as regards the vaccine contagium, and analogy would lead t to the conclusion that the contagia of other diseases are probably i; similar. These are given off in different diseases from different I parts, from the skin, or by the breath from the mucous membrane of the throat or lungs, or from the intestinal mucous membrane, or |i in other excretions, and, floating in the air, may be transported a ' considerable distance.^ Every one has observed how soon a rose L diffuses its odour through a room, and in all probability contagia |.i are in like manner diffused, and become attached to clothes, t etc.,; and as odours have varying degrees of tenacity, so have con- t tagia. The effect of colour is also a very curious fact. Murchison V writes:^ Haller of Vienna observes that dark-coloured materials of c clothing are more prone to absorb the contagion of typhus, and to convey it to other individuals, than those which are light-coloured. ' He found that among troops wearing dark-coloured uniforms it more frequently happened that new cases of typhus entered the hospital, after a convalescent had rejoined his corps, than those wearing light or white uniforms. It may be mentioned, also, that Stork found that in dissecting-rooms dark clothes acquired the '■ cadaveric odour sooner, and were deprived of it less readily, than light ones. Such facts afford useful hints for practice. I * Recent observations in Paris by Dr Bertillon appear to show that the F contagia of smallpox and diphtheria may even be can-ied across the open air ironi a hospital to surrounding dwellings.—British Medical Journal, J une 6, ■1880, p. 863, and June 19, p. 934. * Treatise on Continued Fevers, 2nd edition, p. 89.