(_c_) Floor and bedsteads should be washed with a disinfectant solution,
clothes and other articles that touch the patient should be carefully
disinfected. Crockery and glass should be scalded. If great care and
cleanliness are not observed with regard to the bed and body linen of
the patient, the infection may be diffused through the air immediately
around the patient.
(_d_) A medical man should be at once sent for. Delay is fatal.
_INOCULATION AGAINST PLAGUE._
M. Haffkine, of cholera inoculation fame, has commenced to inoculate
against the plague under the same principles on which his inoculation
against cholera is based. By injecting into the body an attenuated virus
of plague, a very mild attack is produced, which in people inoculated
has proved harmless. This mild attack, it is thought, would protect the
system from more potent forms of the poisonous germs. The inoculation
for plague is still in its experimental stage, and cannot, for obvious
reasons, be applied to a large population. Medical attendants, nurses
and others who, by call of duty, have to constantly come in contact with
plague patients may, however, take advantage of this means of
protection, which, in the hands of M. Haffkine, may yield good results.
Yersin also claims for his serum prophylactic value. In this and all
other matters connected with bacteriology, such as germs,
sero-therapeutics, &c., the medical profession now-a-days receives a
good deal of satirical remarks from sceptical lay public. It is natural
that it should be so, for the science of bacteriology is still in its
infancy, and many of its practical applications are still in their
experimental stage. But undoubtedly the science is advancing, and by its
aid we are now better able to understand diseases and their nature. Many
facts have been demonstrated and proved with precision. What is
disbelieved to-day, may, however, be believed tomorrow, for, with all
human attempt to reveal secrets of nature, such is the case. Readers of
Smollet’s Roderick Random may remember how in the Surgeon’s Hall one of
the examiners said:—“I affirm that all wounds of the intestine whether
great or small are mortal.” Now, however, if a man dies of a wound of
the intestine, the unfortunate doctor in whose hand such a casualty
takes place runs great risk of being charged with malpraxès.
_TREATMENT._
I. _Hygienic._—The patient should take to bed immediately on the
appearance of the first symptoms. The room should have means for free
ventilation, and the temperature in it should be between 60° to 70° F.
The air of the room may be cooled by a block of ice. The room should be
kept clean, and there must not be in it any curtain, carpet or hangings.
The floor and bedsteads should be daily washed with a disinfectant
solution. A position of absolute rest in bed is to be maintained
throughout the illness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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