Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene

by H. F. Harris

Modes of Infection.—It is clear that typhoid fever is the result of the entrance into the body of some minute form of germ-life, whether this be the bacterium generally supposed to induce the disease or not. This contagion is beyond question a living something which multiplies with great rapidity under proper conditions, and, escaping from the bodies of those infected with the disease, in one way or another, reaches other individuals. It is beyond question true that the virus passes from the body of those infected by means of the urine and feces, and it is likely that the secretions from the mouth and nose frequently contain the germs that cause the fever.

As the germs are certainly extraordinarily minute, a very small amount of any of these excretions might produce the disease in healthy individuals if it were to get into their bodies through water, milk, or any uncooked food, or if it were to find lodgment about the nose or mouth, or get upon the hands of other persons. It should also be remembered that the virus may easily get upon cooking-utensils, drinking-cups, bed-linen, and other articles with which we are constantly brought into close contact, and that the disease might be transmitted in this way. It is also true that the malady may be carried from place to place by insects, particularly flies; the latter may readily get enough infectious material upon their legs in various ways, and then, crawling over the food, leave the deadly poison deposited upon it.

Treatment of Typhoid Fever.—As soon as the symptoms appear, a physician should be called and his directions faithfully and carefully followed out. Nothing in this disease is of more importance than careful nursing, and it is absolutely necessary that the patient receive only liquid diet until the physician permits other food.

Wherever possible then, patients with typhoid fever should be completely isolated, since, if this is not done, other members of the family are almost sure to contract the malady—a result which almost everyone has seen who has had any experience with the disease. Wherever possible patients should be sent to a hospital, but where this cannot be done they should be placed in an outhouse, if practicable, or in an isolated room, which should be thoroughly disinfected after the patient's recovery. No one should visit a typhoid-fever patient, except when compelled to do so, and we should be particularly careful to prevent children from coming in contact with them, as it has been shown that they contract the disease much more readily than grown people. It is also of importance that persons should not sit for any length of time in the sick room, and, above all, under no circumstances, should cooking and eating be done there. The room in which the patient is placed should be furnished only with those things absolutely necessary, and it is particularly desirable that carpets and curtains should be removed. It is well to wash the floor each day with some antiseptic solution.

Those persons who come in contact with typhoid fever should wear outer clothing which can be easily washed and boiled. After touching the patient, or any of his clothing, the hands should be at once thoroughly scrubbed in an antiseptic solution. Of course, under no circumstances, should the nurse eat or drink from the same vessels that the patient does.

None of the excretions from persons afflicted with typhoid fever should ever be emptied until thoroughly disinfected with creo-carboline or strong lime-water, and under no circumstances should these be poured out in the neighborhood of springs or wells. Towels, handkerchiefs, and clothing that comes in contact with the patient should be thoroughly disinfected before being sent to the laundry. This is best accomplished by thorough boiling, but in cases where this can not be at once carried out, it is advisable to use some chemical antiseptic; of these, perhaps the best is creo-carboline, which may be employed in a 1-500 solution in water; where this solution is not obtainable, a 5-per-cent. solution of carbolic acid in water will answer. It should also be remembered that the water in which typhoid-fever patients are bathed necessarily becomes infected, and this should always be thoroughly disinfected before being emptied. These precautions should be carried out for some time after the patient has recovered, as it is well known that persons, under such circumstances, for some time frequently contain the poison in their evacuations.

After the patient recovers, the room should be disinfected with formaldehyde gas obtained from the substance known as “formalin.” This gas may now be obtained from the formalin without the use of heat in the following manner: When everything is ready, and the room properly sealed, thirteen ounces of permanganate of potash to each quart of formalin are placed in a large vessel, the room being closed immediately after the two substances are put together; it is important that the permanganate be placed in the vessel first. When this method is employed a quart of formalin should be used to each one thousand cubic feet of air-space in the room. As the gas, by this process, comes off with great rapidity, it is not necessary to keep the room closed more than about four hours. This method is to be advised for the reasons that it acts more quickly than the older one, and there is never danger of fire.

In cases where houses are too open to permit of disinfection by means of gas, the sick chamber should be thoroughly washed with a solution of corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid or some other good disinfectant.

HOOK-WORM DISEASE.

It has been only recently recognized that a large percentage of the invalidism and a great number of the deaths yearly in the southern portion of the United States are caused by a very small intestinal parasite known as the Necator americanus, or hook-worm. This parasite has unquestionably existed over the area just named since the advent of the Negro—recent investigations having shown that the worm is in all probability of African origin. This hook-worm disease is probably the most common of all the serious diseases prevalent in the South, and as it is easily curable, and can be readily prevented, there is no matter which should be of greater interest to the people in the infected regions, especially those who live in villages or on farms.