Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

The danger of infection from tuberculous house servants has not been sufficiently appreciated. A chronic cough in the case of a servant should be at once investigated by the family physician. Servants should be taught the necessity for washing the hands before touching the food or cooking utensils. The condition of their rooms, clothing, bathing, and other personal habits should be closely investigated, and personal cleanliness should be demanded as a sine qua non for obtaining or keeping a situation.

Since it is a well-known fact that tuberculosis can be acquired from the occupation of houses and rooms formerly occupied by tuberculosis patients, it has been suggested that a clean bill of health should be demanded of the owner of the house before renting it; that is, a certificate from the Board of Health, that no case of infection has existed in the house, or that it has been properly disinfected since that time. If such a movement became popular, landlords would be obliged to furnish these bills of health in self-defense. Since the Boards of Health demand the reporting of all cases of tuberculosis, this scheme is by no means impracticable or Utopian.

The tubercle bacillus is not destroyed by any degree of cold, but both light and sunlight are distinctly injurious to these bacteria. The lowest fatal temperature to the tubercle bacillus is 131° F. of moist heat, acting for a period of six hours. The thermal death-point of tubercle bacilli in milk is of great practical importance, and many experiments have been made which have determined that a temperature of from 140° to 167° F., was sufficient if continued for one hour. If it is desired to pasteurize the milk, it should be placed in a closed bottle or stirred and heated for at least twenty minutes at a temperature of 149° F.

Disinfection.—The use of formaldehyd gas has practically displaced the use of sulphur for the fumigation of rooms, as well as for the disinfection of furniture and clothing. For this purpose a moist vapor used in a sealed room is essential.

At least 8 ounces of the commercial 40 per cent. formalin should be used for each 1000 cubic feet of air content. The most efficient method is that used by Biggs, of New York, which is as follows: For an ordinary room, 1000 cubic feet, 1 pound of lime, 8 fluidounces of formalin, and from 2½ to 3 fluidounces of commercial sulphuric acid are required. All openings but the door are sealed. The formalin is poured into an empty water-pitcher, 4 ounces of water are added, and then the sulphuric acid is poured slowly in. The lime is placed in a china or earthenware wash-basin on the floor upon newspapers; all water is removed from the room. All drawers and cupboards opened; the mattresses stood on end; and the mixture poured quickly upon the lime, when the door is sealed. The sulphuric acid may be packed in a tin bucket containing the lime, and, with the formalin in a separate bottle, may be used by any person of ordinary intelligence. The room should remain closed from twelve to eighteen hours. It must not be lost sight of that after disinfection by means of formalin a thorough cleansing is imperative. A room which has been thoroughly cleaned and carbolized is safer than a room which has been disinfected with formalin and not properly cleaned.

After death or removal the entire place should be renovated. Besides disinfection and scrubbing the painted woodwork with a solution of hot soda water, the walls should be repainted or repapered, and the woodwork repainted.

Rugs, bedding, pillows, and clothing should be disinfected by hanging up in the room while it is undergoing disinfection. Books and all articles of small value should be burned. All soiled linen should be boiled.

The Kidneys and their Function.—The kidneys are the secretory organs of the urine; they are two in number, and are the largest tubular glands in the body. They are deeply seated in the lumbar region, lying one on each side of the vertebral column; the kidneys extend from the eleventh rib nearly to the crest of the pelvis. They are usually embedded in a considerable quantity of fat, which is the chief factor in holding them in position, aided to some extent by the large blood-vessels with which they are connected. The kidneys are oblong bodies and measure about 4 inches in length, 2½ inches in breadth, and over 1 inch in thickness. Their weight is about 4½ ounces.

As an excretory organ the kidney probably stands second to the alimentary canal; it surpasses in importance the skin, whose total excretion of water it equals. The abnormal substances appearing in the urine are often not the products of disease of the kidneys, but of some other organ or system.

The kidneys excrete and put the finishing touches upon the urinary fluid; they act at the end of the metabolic course, both as active and as passive agents. While to some extent the kidneys are mechanical contrivances, mere filters, so to speak, they are to a far greater degree active, specific glands. The renal epithelium has the power of synthesis, and builds up complex substances that are not apparent as such in the blood or lymph, as well as the power of analysis or breaking down of substances. These changes are due to the formation in the tubular cell of an enzyme, which we call histozyme. The kidney is the end link in the vascular chain, and the daily performance of healthy kidneys is no doubt a combination of the mechanical and the vital processes.