(2) Exposure to superheated steam—25 lb. pressure—for 1 hour. Mattresses to have the cover removed or freely opened.
(3) Immersion in boiling water for 1 hour.
(4) Immersion in blue solution (mercuric chloride and sulphate of copper) 2 fl. oz. to 1 gal. of water.
Fire.—Materials used in wiping away discharges may be burned in the open fireplace of the sickroom. In general, this method is to be recommended for all substances which have been exposed to infection, which cannot be treated with boiling water, and, could it be carried out in all cases, would make disinfection a very simple matter. If there is no fire in the room, such substances may be wrapped in a sheet soaked with solution, carbolic acid, and in this condition conveyed to a fire elsewhere.
Boiling Water.—Boiling in water for ½ hour will destroy the vitality of all known disease germs. This is therefore the best means for all articles which can be thus treated, such as body-clothing of the patient, bed-clothes, towels, &c. All utensils used in the room in feeding the patient should likewise be treated with boiling water before being removed from the room. Food itself, not consumed by the patient, should not be used by others, as it is liable to become infected in the sickroom. If there are no facilities for treating articles with boiling water in the sickroom, they may with safety be removed to another part of the house for this treatment if they are carefully enveloped in a towel or sheet, as the case may require, which has been thoroughly soaked with carbolic acid solution. Thus enveloped, they should be put in the water, and boiled for the required time.
Chloride of Lime.—To be effective as a disinfectant this must be of the best quality, and in purchasing it, only that should be accepted which is enclosed in glass bottles, as, when packed in paper or wooden boxes, it is liable to have so deteriorated as to be worthless for disinfecting purposes. Dissolved in water, in the proportion of 4 oz. to 1 gal., it forms a standard solution recommended to be used in the disinfection of discharges in contagious diseases, especially in typhoid fever and cholera; 1 pint should be well mixed with each discharge; after 10 minutes, disinfection is completed, and the contents of the vessel may be then safely thrown into the water closet. The expectorated matter of those sick with consumption should be discharged into a cup half filled with this or carbolic acid solution.
Solution of Chlorinated Soda.—To be effective, this solution must contain at least 3 per cent. of available chlorine, and care should be exercised to obtain such a quality. This is sometimes spoken of as Labarraque’s solution; but, as this latter is too weak to act as a disinfectant, the name is liable to mislead. A standard solution is made by adding 5 parts water to 1 of the solution of chlorinated soda. The cost of this solution is about 5d. a gallon. When thus diluted it may be used for all the purposes for which chloride of lime was recommended, and is of a somewhat more agreeable odour, though more expensive. It should be used to cleanse portions of the body soiled with discharges of those sick with infectious diseases, or the hands of attendants similarly soiled.
Bichloride of Mercury (corrosive sublimate) is recommended to be used only in the disinfection of privy vaults which contain so much material, believed to be infected with the germs of typhoid fever or cholera, that the disinfection by chloride of lime would be impracticable. In using this, it should be dissolved in the proportion of 1 oz. bichloride of mercury to 1 gal. water; this quantity will disinfect 4 gal. infected excremental matter.
For Clothing after Recovery or Death.
The clothing of the patient should be treated in the manner already described as necessary during the sickness. Whatever can be boiled in water should be thus disinfected; articles which cannot be boiled should, if circumstances will permit, be burned; all other articles should be left in the room to be subjected to the fumigation hereafter to be described, and until thus treated, the room and its contents should be closed with lock and key, to prevent any one from entering. If it is desired to burn any articles, and facilities for it do not exist in the house, the authorities should be notified, and an officer will call and remove the articles for destruction.