122 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

there is no method that can compare in the remotest
degree, as regards certainty and simplicity, with that by
means of formaldehyde gas. For example, any one who
has seen the process of cleansing walls by rubbing them
down with bread, as carried out by the disinfecting corps,
will agree with me that, however effective it may be
from a theoretical point of view, it is absolutely inefficient
in practice. The possibility of disinfecting rooms and all
their contents with certainty, by means of a simple,
cheap, harmless, and easily managed method must be
hailed as a great advance."

The floor should be scoured with 5 per cent, carbolic-
acid solution or i : 1000 bichlorid of mercury, and all the
wooden articles wiped off two or three times with the
same solution employed for the floor. In this scouring
no soap can be used, as it destroys the virtue of the
germicide. If a straw mattress was used, it should be
burned and the cover boiled. If a hair mattress was-
used, it can be steamed or baked by the manufacturers,
who generally have ovens for the purpose. Curtains,,
shades, etc., should receive proper attention; but, of course,
the greater the precautions exercised in the beginning",
the fewer the articles which will need attention in the
end. They should be removed before the case lias-
developed.

Strehl has succeeded in demonstrating that when 10 per
cent, formalin solution is sponged upon artificially infected
curtains, etc., the bacteria are killed by the action of the
disinfectant. This knowledge will be an important ad-
junct to our means for disinfecting the furniture of the
sick-chamber.

The patient, whether he lives or dies, may also be
a means of spreading the disease unless specially cared
for. After convalescence the body should be bathed witli
a weak bichlorid-of-mercury solution or with a 2 per
cent, carbolic-acid solution, or with 25-50 per cent, alco-
hol, before the patient is allowed to mingle with society,
and the hair should either be cut off or carefully washed