Fourth: All discharges (sputum, urine, bowel discharges, and matter from sores) from any sick person should be thoroughly disinfected before being finally disposed of. The sputum should be received on little rags or paper napkins, and burned; and the other discharges should be disinfected with some poison that will kill the germs. We shall say more about disinfection when we come to study the prevention of special diseases.
Necessity of washing the hands after touching the sick
Fifth: Every person who touches a sick person, or handles anything that comes from a sickroom, should immediately wash his hands. Unless he washes his hands at once, the germs which may be on them may get into his mouth.
How dirt causes disease
Sixth: Dirt, which is an indirect cause of disease, must not be allowed to accumulate. If your yard were full of dirt, garbage, and manure, it would not cause disease unless the germs of some disease became planted there. But such a place is an indirect cause of disease, in that it furnishes a fine place for germs to grow in. If a fly with typhoid germs on its feet were to alight in such a yard, the germs would be planted in a most favorable spot and would grow very fast.
Fig. 41. A place that is an indirect cause of disease, since it furnishes a fine place for germs to grow in.
None of the disease germs like sunshine; neither do they like dry places. They die very quickly in the sunlight, and grow very slowly, if at all, in dry places; but in damp, dark places they grow very fast. Dirty back yards make ideal gardens for germs.