“The means by which typhoid fever may be prevented from spreading are very simple, very sure, and their cost, next to nothing.
“They are founded on the discovery that the poison by which this fever spreads is almost entirely contained in the discharges from the bowels.
“These discharges infect (1) the air of the sick room; (2) the bed and body linen of the patient; (3) privy and the cesspool, or the drains proceeding from them.
“In these various ways, including the contamination of drinking water, already described, the infection proceeding from the bowel discharges often spreads the fever far and wide. The one great thing to aim at, therefore, is to disinfect these discharges on their very escape from the body, and before they are carried from the sickroom. This may be perfectly done by the use of disinfectants. One of the best is made of green copperas.
“This substance, which is used by all shoemakers, is very cheap, and may be had everywhere. A pound and a half of green copperas to a gallon of water is the proper strength. A teacupful of this liquid put into the night-pan every time before it is used by the patient renders the bowel discharge perfectly harmless. One part of Calvert’s liquid carbolic acid in fifty parts of water is equally efficacious.
“To disinfect the bed and body linen, and bedding generally, chloride of lime, or Macdougal’s, or Calvert’s powder is more convenient.
“These powders should be sprinkled by means of a common dredger on soiled spots on the linen, and about the room to purify the air.
“All articles of bed and body linen should be plunged, immediately on their removal from the bed, into a bucket of water containing a tablespoonful of chloride of lime, or Macdougal’s or Calvert’s powder, and should be boiled before being washed; a yard of thin white gutta percha, placed beneath the blanket, under the breech of the patient, by effectually preventing the discharges from soaking into the bed is a great additional safeguard. The privy or closet, and all drains communicating with it, should be flushed twice daily with the green copperas liquid, or with carbolic acid diluted with water.[243]
[243] See Sporokton.
“In towns and villages where the fever is