HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 48

HEALTH COLUMN.

! , Diphtheria* ,

I Concerning the management of .a case of diphtheria, so far as that may fall within the domain of the parents, _the following few rules, while pot incorporating all, are still tbe most important for the spread of this dreadful disease, and my earnest advice to every mother is to study them carefully, and preserve them for future reference. . First,' strips of linen or cotton fabric, about Bin wide, folded several times and long enough to/ reach from ear to ear,, should be wrung out of ice water (if in winter), and if in summer pot directly upon ioe, and then applied externally to the. throat, and as fast as .one cloth gets warm another should be ready to take its place. If *the child complains of being cold, its feet and hands should be bathed in as hot water as it can stand. When tbe child is very young, it may be readily ascertained if it be cold or not by feeling its hands and-head. . Under no circumstances should hot applications be made to the throat. , If the ohild is old enough it may be given broken ice (to suck constantly, even if the Water is spit out. The cold applications inhibit tbe growth of the microbes. The patient's hands should be washed frequently — and here let me say so should, those of attendants — and the vessel used for' the purpose should not be used fdr, anyone else. , The patient's clothing needs protection in front. This may be dote by pinning back of tbe neck a large piece of linen or cotton fabric, which will cover the whole front of the child and reach as far as the knees. A material should be used which can easily be boiled or burned when soiled. The little patient, if old enoagh,-wlll want to spit, and' for a spittoon a small .wooden box with an inch of sawdust on the, Bottom is capital. Fresh) sawdust should be supplied at least once a day — three times a day would be better— and that which has been used should be emptied upon a good hot fire,: and thus burned at the time the change is made. If there are any files about the box should be kept covered,, and, as a matter .of' course, only uncovered when the patient deßires to spit; otherwise the flies alighting upon the spittle would carry the germs of the disease with them, and then alighting upon the family's food and drink, necessarily them, and thus indirectly infect the whole family. This is by no means chimerical, but a well-established fact.

All clothing and bed clothing that come in contact with a diphtheria patient contain the germs of the ; disease. For, this reason all such clothing should be disinfected, and aired or washed before it is used again. . ; What is said of diphtheria is' also true of scarlet fever and measles. The contagion of these diseases is in proportion, to the severity of the case from which it comes. The less care given to ventilation and general cleanliness, -the more aotive does ihecontagion become ; bat the contagion from a very mild -case may cause very severe and fatal cases

Both diphtheria and, scarlet fever may be caused by milk poisoned with the germs of these diseases. There are on record at least 14] epidemics of diphtheria [caused by milk. In only one of these epidemics did any of the attendants about the dailies have diphtheria before the .disease broke out among the customers. In one instance it broke oat among the dairy hands and the customers at the same time. In five of these epidemics the dairies were in very unsanitary conditions; untrapped or open drains > allowed noxious gases to reach .the milk and milk pans. In this way a Btnall amount of the contagion got into the milk and developed so rapidly as to infect a great many people.— Hall's Journal of Health. , ,

— Hard to Answer. — Mamma (reviewing Ithel's" composition"): "Why, child 1 this is not the way to speir ' rhinoceros.'" Ethel : " But if it does not spell it, how did you know what it was.? "