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CARE OF INFECTION.

The following diseases are reported to the Board of Health: Asiatic cholera, leprosy, yellow fever, typhus or ship fever, diphtheria, scarlatina, small pox, varioloid, trichiniasis, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis.

The duty of reporting cases rests primarily upon practitioners of medicine, but the law is mandatory as well upon masters of water craft, proprietors or managers of hotels and boarding or lodging houses, principals of public and private schools, persons in charge of public institutions of charity or of punishment, and heads of families.

The ordinance regulating ingress and egress to and from houses designated by card as infected, provides that no person except practitioners of medicine shall enter or leave the premises, unless specially authorized by the Health Officer. Nurses may enter without any special authorization, but must not leave without the knowledge and sanction of the Health Officer. Ministers of the Gospel may visit the sick, provided they comply in going to and from the house with all sanitary requirements of the Board of Health. Breadwinners are given the privilege of going to their work, provided they change their clothing upon entering and leaving the infected premises and do not act as nurse to, or come in contact with, or live in the same room as the sick person. They are not permitted, however, to attend meetings or other places where people congregate (theatres, etc.). Nor is the privilege granted to school teachers and other persons whose business brings them in intimate contact with children.

The removal or defacing of placards is punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Typhoid fever cases are not carded, and no restriction is placed on well members of the household.

Nothing is done in tuberculosis, as yet, beyond disinfection at the proper time.

The sanitary measures operated for yellow fever have for their basis the doctrine of the mosquito-conveyance of this disease.

Persons suffering from leprosy are sent to the "Leper Home", at Indian Camp, in Iberville Parish.

Cases of infectious and contagious diseases carded by the Board are reported to the Mayor's office, the Fisk Free Circulating Library and the School Board, and, if an adult, to the employer also.

Cases of small pox reported in lodging houses, hotels and tenement houses, or unable to secure proper attention at their house, are removed to the small pox hospital. Cases which are permitted to remain at home are guarded by night and by day. The infected. square and eight adjacent ones are carefully canvassed for possible cases, and house-to-house vaccination is offered by a medical officer of the Board. Persons exposed to infection are kept under observation for a period of twenty days after completion of the case or removal to the hospital.

The benefit of free anti-toxine is offered to diphtheria cases on the medical attendant's certificate that the patient is unable to purchase the serum.

Scarlatina and variola convalescents are examined by a medical officer of the Board, who passes upon their sanitary condition, which determines the time of release from quarantine.

Cases of diphtheria remain quarantined twenty-one days from the date of report, unless a control culture shows freedom from bacilli at an earlier date.

The disinfectant supplied in cases of contagious and infectious diseases consists of bichloride of mercury and ammonium chloride. One and a half ounces of each, added to twelve and a half gallons of water (five buckets, approximately), makes a solution of proper strength for the disinfection of clothing, bedding, etc., from the sick room. The solution is made and kept in a wooden tub. Infected articles remain immersed six hours, when they should be placed in clear water to prevent injury to fabrics. Printed instructions accompany the chemicals. The officer detailed on the case visits the premises every other day to see that the card is not disturbed and to renew the supply of chemicals.

In typhoid fever carbolic acid is used instead of bichloride, for obvious reasons. A three per cent solution of the acid (a tablespoonful to the pint of water) is recommended for the hands of the nurse and the disinfection of all body and bed clothing, towels, napkins, etc. A five per cent solution is used for the water closet, urinal, sink, cesspool, etc. Chloride of lime of good quality, in the proportion of four ounces to the gallon of water, is recommended for disinfection of the passages and urine.

Persons exposed to infectious diseases are kept under observation until the danger period for secondary cases has elapsed.

Doubtful or suspected cases of illness are visited by a medical

officer of the Board, usually the Inspector of Communicable Dis

eases.

The Board is empowered to enforce the early burial of the dead. Public or church funerals are forbidden. The body is prepared for burial by being wrapped up in a bichloride sheet (1 to 500).

Disinfection.

Formaldehyde is used, but no generator, the evolution of the gas being brought about through the use of permanganate of potash.

An ordinary cast-iron pot is used, placed in a tub containing two or three inches of water or as much sand. The requisite amount of permanganate is put in the pot, the formaldehyde poured in, and the evolution of the gas begins at once.

Four ounces of permanganate of potash and eight ounces of formaldehyde are used to each thousand cubic feet of air-space. The room remains closed five hours.

This method is thorough in its effects and has the great merit of simplicity. The use of expensive apparatus is obviated.

Where it is desired to kill mosquitoes, camphor is added to the above ingredients in the proportion of two ounces for every thousand cubic feet of air space.

For disinfection after small pox in houses known to contain bed bugs sulphur is used instead of the usual mixture of formaldehyde and permanganate of potash.

Prior to fumigation rooms are made air-tight by means of wooden pegs and gummed paper, blocking of the fireplace, etc.

SPECIFICATIONS FOR CHEMICALS USED BY THE

BOARD.

Formaldehyde.

Must be a clear colorless liquid, free from sediment, having a >p. gr. of not less than 1.075 at 25 c. Must be volatilizable, and white mass remaining after evaporation should leave no residue upon ignition. Must contain not less than 37 per cent by weight of a lute Formaldehyde. Must be in glass carboys of about 115 lbs. "Veights called for and billed must be net weights.

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