After the peeling in scarlet fever or the shedding of scabs in smallpox has set in, the patient should take, at intervals of three or four days, hot baths with soft soap, the hair, previously cut short, being well scrubbed with the same. In scarlet fever and diphtheria the mouth and throat should be frequently sprayed, washed out or gargled with a pretty strong solution of permanganate of potash or a weak one of chlorinated soda. DISINFECTION, ITS IMPORTANCE AND ITS METHODS There are few subjects on which greater ignorance exists, not only among the public but among medical men as well, than on that of disinfectants. The word is used vaguely to mean deodorants, which destroy bad odors; antiseptics, which prevent the spread of injury by putrefaction in a wound; and germicides, which actually destroy the bacteria or microbes which produce contagion in a disease. In some cases one of these may serve the function of another, but that is merely incidental. Deodorants may be such simple things as perfumery, tobacco smoke or camphor, and they serve very useful purposes in masking bad smells, but they are entirely useless in preventing disease. Permanganate of potash, or “Condy’s fluid,” as the druggists call it, is a powerful antiseptic, instantly destroying the matter that is beginning to putrefy by what is really a burning process. It sweetens the foul discharges from wounds and bad throats, but is nearly powerless to destroy the living germs of disease. The disinfectants of most practical value, which are at the same time germicides, are carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, sulphurous acid, chlorine and corrosive sublimate. Carbolic acid, when strong enough, is fairly satisfactory. Five per cent solutions (one part in twenty) stop the activity of bacteria, but do not actually destroy their vitality. Solutions twice as strong do, but water will not dissolve so much, and the odor that remains is an objection to their use for disinfecting linen. Chloride of zinc is far more powerful. If too strong a mixture is used it may injure cloth, so that this wants to be guarded against. Sulphurous acid (the fumes of burning sulphur) is a most convenient disinfectant. Shut the windows down tight, leave all the clothing in its place and open trunks and drawers. Put a thick layer of ashes in an old iron pot, over which place a shovel of live coals; throw a teacup of pulverized sulphur on the coals and run out, closing the doors in your exit. Stay out several hours. On returning open all doors and windows, and the odor will soon be gone, also the bugs, insects and the germs of any disease that may be lodged in the clothing, etc.