THOMAS H. HAWKINS, A.M., M.D., EDITOR ANd Publisher. Henry O. Marcy, M.D., Boston. COLLABORATORS: Thaddeus A. Reamy, M.D., Cincinnati. Joseph Price, M, D., Philadelphia. Thomas B. Eastman, M.D., Indianapolis, Ind. S. H. Pinkerton, M.D., Salt Lake City Subscriptions, $1.00 per year in advance; Single Copies. 10 cents. Address all Communications to Denver Medical Times, 1740 Welton Street, Denver, Colo. We will at all times be glad to give space to well written articles or items of interest to the profession. [Entered at the Postoffice of Denver, Colorado, as mail matter of the Second Class.] EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT THE INFECTIOUS SICK ROOM. Isolation and disinfection are the sanitary keynotes in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The sick room should be cleared of all unnecessary furniture and of carpets, curtains and bed-hangings. It is best located at the top of the house, or as far as practicable from the rest of the household. Good light and ventilation destroy and diminish germs. An open fire is convenient to burn infected things and aid ventilation. A sheet saturated with some disinfectant solution may be hung over the door. The acting nurse should keep aloof from the remainder of the household, and sleep in an adjoining room. The attending physician should cover his clothing with a long gown kept just outside the patient's door and sterilized immediately after being used. He should wash his hands with soap and water, followed by mercuric chlorid (1:1000) or other good antiseptic before leaving the sick room. Nurses should keep their hands clean and disinfected, and may also employ some simple antiseptic gargle or spray for the throat and nose. Remnants of food had best be burned and the eating utensils scalded. After an attack of infectious disease, the entire body and the hair must be bathed and washed with hot soapsuds, and the patient dressed in clean clothing from another apartment before leaving the room. The body of a person dead from an infectious disease is to be enveloped in sheets saturated with carbolic acid or mercuric chlorid solution. In cases of dysentery, cholera and plague the anus should be plugged with a pledget of cotton previously soaked in a strong antiseptic solution. Infected matter should be thoroughly disinfected before throwing into vaults. The disinfection of stools is necessary in typhoid, dysentery and cholera. One per cent. of active chlorinated lime thoroughly disinfects typhoid and cholera stools in ten minutes. This germicide is best placed in the vessel before the excreta, and should be well mixed therewith. Carbolic acid is uncertain for the destruction of spores, but a 2% solution destroys typhoid and cholera bacilli and gonococci. A 5% solution is an effective disinfectant for sputum, vomit and feces. A 2% solution is used as a wash. Carbolized soap solution consists of 3% soft soap and then 5% of the commercial acid in 100 parts of water. Infected clothing and bedding are soaked in this for 2 or 3 hours, and it is used for scrubbing floors and furniture. Mercuric chlorid solution, 1:5000-1:1000, is also employed in washing and scrubbing. A teaspoonful of common salt to the quart of solution prevents precipitation by albuminous liquids. A 4% solution of hot washing soda is useful for scrubbing, both as a detergent and a disinfectant. A 2% solution is used for boiling cloths, vessels and instruments. Articles that are safely boiled should be so disinfected, first soaking stained goods in cold water. Valueless articles are best promptly burned. Steam apparatus is essential for bulky matters, such as bedding, carpets and clothing. Hot air is inferior and may scorch and damage many things, but may be employed carefully for furs, leather, books, etc., and to dry articles moistened by steam. Previous to fumigation, one should paper over all crevices and openings, including the fireplace, and keep the room closed for 24 hours, then ærate thoroughly. Metal surfaces should be washed over with 2% carbolic acid solution, and such furniture should be removed from the room if sulphur fumigation is employed. Strip the paper from the walls, or rub over with bread 48 hours old. Whitewash the ceilings and wash the floor with acidulated chlorid 1:1000, or with a 5% solution of carbolic acid. Formaldehyde destroys highly resistant bacteria and spores, but has little penetrating action. From personal experience, Abbott endorses the use of formalin containing 10% of glycerin, by means of a simple copper retort and a key-hole tube. Five hundred cc. of the mixture is sufficient for 1,000 cubic feet. The irritating odor is readily removed by exposing ammonia water to the air of the disinfected room. The autoclave is recommended in the U. S. quarantine regulations, for disinfection with formalin (one pound per 1,000 cubic feet) or formochloral, passing the heated gas through the key-hole by means of an escape tube. Sulphur dioxide, to be reliable, must constitute 4% by volume of the air capacity of the room. Since the gas must unite with water, forming sulphurous acid, in order to exert a germicidal effect, it is well to spray objects with a hand atomizer or generate steam from boiling water along with the evolution of the sulphur vapors. Sulphur fumigation is preferable to formaldehyde in its greater penetration and in the fact that it kills fleas, mosquitoes, bugs and rats. On the other hand, it corrodes metals and bleaches colored fabrics. Sulphur dioxid liquefied by pressure and kept in cans, is very convenient, requiring only to be let out of the container into air previously moistened with steam. Walls, ceilings and other surfaces may be disinfected by spraying them with a 1:1000 solution of mercuric chlorid or formalin, and rubbing down carefully with bread or damp cheese cloth. It is well, if possible, to repaint and repaper rooms that have been infected. Mere fumigation is by no means sufficient to combat the house infection produced by tuberculosis. The dust-laden walls, hangings, bedding and furniture should all be carefully cleaned at stated intervals, and certainly after the death of the tuberculous occupant. Concerning infected stables and cellars, Abbott recommends to saturate the surfaces thoroughly over night with 5% creolin or sulphocarbolic acid solution, or with a 2% solution of chlorinated lime, and to cleanse them the following morning with a 2% solution of boiling washing soda. Cellars and common stables should be whitewashed. President Amador of the Republic of Panama has appointed the following officers of the Fourth Pan-American Medical Congress, to be held in Panama the first week in January, 1905: Dr. Julio Ycaza, President; Dr. Manuel Coroalles, VicePresident; Dr. Jose E. Calvo, Secretary; Dr. Pedro de Obarrio, Treasurer, and Dr. J. W. Ross, Dr. T. Tomaselli, Dr. M. Gasteazoro, Committeemen. There will be but four sections: Surgery, Medicine, Hygiene and the Specialties, to which the following officers were appointed: Surgical Section-Major Louis LaGarde, President; Dr. E. B. Harrick, Secretary. Medical Section-Dr. Moritz Stern, President; Dr. Daniel R. Oduber, Secretary. Section on Hygiene-Colonel W. C. Gorgas, President; Dr. Henry E. Carter, Secretary. Section on Specialties-Dr. W. Spratling, President; Dr. Charles A. Cooke, Secretary. EDITORIAL ITEMS. Medical Education in Japan. Japan, says the Medical Fortnightly, has 31,000 physicians and eight medical schools. For Syphilitic Allopecia.-Fox directs to apply a five per cent. oleate of mercury ointment. Tinea Kerion. The tricophyton fungus disease is treated by Bulkley by epilation and washing with one per cent. bichloride solution. For Barber's Itch:-J. J. Pringle advises epilation of about a square inch daily, followed by the application of diluted ointment of the red oxide of mercury. Defluvium Capillitii.-The temporary thinning of the hair after fevers is treated by Fox with a lotion of tincture of cantharides 10, glycerine 2, and cologne water to make 100 parts. Eczema Capitis.-The "milk crust" of children is treated by Fox by the local use of a mixture of one part of oil of cade to three parts of oil of sweet almond. Black Urine.-The Medical Council states that melanuria is often observed after eating damson plums. When taking ferric chloride or nitric acid, the urine may turn black after it cools. For Threatened Baldness.-Bartholow recommended the following: R Ext. jaborandi fl. oz. i; tinct. cantharidis dr. iv; linimentum saponis q. s. ad. oz. iv: Rub into scalp once a day. Cardiac Neuralgia.-In neuralgias of the heart Abbott (Alkaloidal Clinic) gives strychnine arsenate in moderate doses in the intervals, continued for months. For Lupus Vulgaris.-Jackson advises a nutritious diet, cod-liver oil and iodide of iron; also multiple scarification deep enough to penetrate all softened tissues and repeated in five or six days. Prevention of Baldness.-Brush the hair twice a day with a fairly stiff brush, says Robinson, and tip it every other week. Wash the scalp at intervals with warm rain water and a good simple soap. |