When there is small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, or typhus fever in a house, immediate attendants on the sick should not leave the house without a change of outside clothing.
General Precautions for those entering a Sick-Room.
Never enter a sick-room with an empty stomach, or when very tired.
Never eat or drink anything that has been long exposed to the air of the sick-room.
Breathe through your nose, and keep your mouth shut except when you are talking.
CHAPTER IV.
FOOD.
How to distinguish a good article of food from a bad one, when both are in their natural state, is within the province of the cook-book. In this place will be pointed out only the adulterations of food, and those methods of detecting them which can be used by householders who have no special knowledge of the instrumental and chemical means which are generally necessary.
Adulterations are of two kinds: those which injure the consumer, and those which simply cheat him. The following details are chiefly taken from the New York State Board of Health report for 1881-’82, the name of the analyst being in each case appended.
Arrowroot.—Often mixed with cheaper starches. Twenty-three samples examined: seventeen were arrowroot, one was arrowroot and tapioca, two arrowroot, tapioca, and potato, and three tapioca and potato. Harmless. (E. G. Love, Ph. D.)
Bakers’ chemicals.—(Saleratus.) This was originally bicarbonate of potash, but the name is now applied to the bicarbonate of soda. Twenty samples: none adulterated.—(Baking-soda.) Twenty-three samples: twenty samples unadulterated. One contained 25 per cent of gypsum; one same quantity of gypsum and a little starch; one a large amount of sulphate of soda and 17 per cent of carbonate of lime.—(Cream of tartar.) This is the bitartrate of potash. Twenty-seven samples: sixteen adulterated and in some not a particle of cream of tartar found. Six adulterated with terra alba (gypsum) and starch, one with starch alone, two with starch, terra alba, and acid phosphate of lime. Six had tartaric acid and no cream of tartar. In eight the amount of terra alba was found to vary from 3.27 to 93 per cent. Five samples contained over 70 per cent of this injurious adulteration. (Love.)