Terms Infectious and Contagious
The terms infectious and contagious are not clearly defined and have no scientific precision. “A contagious (contigere, to touch) dis-ease is one that is readily communicable—in common parlance, ‘catching.’ Formerly a contagious dis-ease was considered as one which is caught from another by contact, by the breath or by effluvia. A contagious dis-ease implies direct or personal contact. If contagious dis-eases are limited to those contracted by direct contact or touch, as the etymology of the word signifies, only syphilis and dis-eases similarly contracted would be contagious. As a matter of fact, smallpox, measles and influenza are types of contagious dis-eases, and the term is now usually understood.”
“An infectious (inficere, to put in, dip in, or mix in) dis-ease is usually considered as one not conveyed directly and obviously, as in the case of contagion, but indirectly through some hidden influence or medium. In the days when specific febrile dis-eases were regarded as caused by miasmata and noxious effluvia, the term ‘infectious’ and ‘miasmatic’ dis-eases were more or less synonymous. Typhoid fever was often taken as a type of an infectious dis-ease. Malaria was the type of miasmatic dis-ease.” (Rosenau, Preventive Medicine and Hygiene.)
Most authors consider that an infectious dis-ease may be contagious and a contagious dis-ease is also infectious. Contagion implies more of a personal contact as a mode of transfer, while infection implies more of an indirect mode. The communicable is more specific, but does not refer to any particular mode of transference.
There are many so-called communicable dis-eases, yet let it ever be remembered that if Innate Intelligence is operating at par in the body there will be an immunity from these dis-eases, although the germs that are supposed to cause them will still exist.
CHAPTER XIII
DISINFECTION AND FUMIGATION
DISINFECTION AND FUMIGATION
DEFINITIONS
Disinfection
Sterilization
Antiseptic
Insecticide
Asepsis
Germicide
Deodorant
Fumigation
FORMALDEHYDE
SULPHUR DIOXIDE
MEANS OF DISINFECTION
Natural Means
DILUTION
DESICCATION
SUNLIGHT
TIME
ANTIBOSIS
Other Agents
FIRE
DRY HEAT
BOILING
STEAM
Other Disinfectants
CARBOLIC ACID
CREOLINE
LYSOL
SAPROL
BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY
CHAPTER XIII
DISINFECTION AND FUMIGATION