PRECAUTIONS RESPECTING 
kqd >ScHlet SWef. 
ISSUED BY ORDER OF THE 
BOARD OF HEALTH 
OF 
NEW HAVEN. SPECIAL IR, E IP O IR. T 
TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH. 
Gentlemen : 
Because of the widespread prevalence of Diphtheria throughout the 
country and the costly experience of other cities, both in sacrifice of life 
and expenditure of treasure in checking its ravages, it would seem proper 
that this Board, the appointed conservators of the public health, should, at 
this time, offer such suggestions as will serve to protect our citizens from 
sifnilar sufferings from this disease. 
Diphtheria is both a contagious and an infectious disease ; it is, more- 
over, pre-eminentl}’ one of the class of filth diseases—that is, it occurs 
most frequently and in the most malignant and fatal form where dampness 
and dirt do most prevail. The means of protection, therefore, obviously 
lie in avoidance of exposure to its presence and in the most scrupulous 
attention to cleanliness. Absolute isolation of the sick, the most rigid 
purity of surroundings, aided by disinfection when required, would prob- 
ably exterminate the disease. The veteran sanitarian, Dr. E. M. Snow, 
of Providence, says that where there is abundant sunlight, drjmess, cleanli- 
ness and pure air, diphtheria cannot prevail. The same conditions will 
protect almost as effectually from most other dangerous diseases. Such 
being the truth, neither individuals or communities can afford to ignore the 
fact that they are in a great degree responsible for their own health. 
The Board of Health of New Haven would make the following recom- 
mendations to those not familiar with the care of patients suffering from 
either diphtheria or scarlet fever. When a case occurs in any family, the 
sick person should be placed in a room apart from the other inmates of the 
house, and should be nursed as far as possible by one person only. The 
sick chamber should be well warmed, well aired and exposed to sunlight ; 
its furniture should be such as can be cleansed without injury, and all 
superfluous things as window and table drapery, woolen carpets and the 
like should be removed. The family should not mingle with other people. 
Visitors should be warned of the presence of a contagious disease, and chil- 
dren should not be admitted to the house. 
All clothing removed from the patient should be at once placed in 
boiling water ; instead of handkerchiefs, soft pieces of linen or cotton cloth 
should be used and immediately burned. Disinfectants should be placed in all the vessels which receive the expectoration or other discharges from 
the patient. Disinfectants should also be freely used in the sick room. 
Those which destroy bad odors without causing others are best, such as 
solutions of nitrate of lead and chloride of zinc. 
The sick person should not mingle with others until fully recovered) 
and in cases of scarlet fever until all roughness of the skin, due to the dis- 
ease, has disappeared, because the exfoliated skin is especially infectious. 
The disinfection of the sick room should be thorough. The walls 
should be drj’-rubbed and the cloths used burned without shaking, the 
ceiling should be scraped and lime washed. The floor and woodwork 
should be washed with soap and water. The clothing or bedding used by 
the patient or nurse should be purified by boiling for at least one hour, 
and should always be cleaned by themselves, and under no circumstances 
should they be sent to a laundr)’'. In case of death the body should be 
placed as early as practicable in the coffin, with disinfectants, and the 
coffin tightly closed. 
Children certainly and inmost cases adults should not attend a funeral 
from a house in which a death from diphtheria or scarlet feverhas occurred. 
But with suitable precautions it is not necessary that the burial should be 
strictly private, provided that the corpse be not in way exposed. 
Because children are especially liable to take and to spread these dis- 
eases, and because schools afford a free opportunity for this, every child 
from any family in which a case of either of these diseases has occurred 
should be excluded from school, and be re-admitted not sooner than one 
month from the beginning of the disease, except upon certificate of some 
competent physician that it will be safe. 
All the above precautions concern the dangers of contagion. But the 
continued prevalence of these diseases in any community is probable evi- 
dence of insanitary surroundings and of sources of sickness, partially or 
wholty preventable. The most exemplary housewife whose home is the 
very model of neatness and order, may have all her efforts defeated in a 
sanitary sense, by a defective sink trap or a leaky drain pipe, or an over- 
flowing cesspool, or a misplaced priv)r vault, or an undrained cellar, or 
even by a heap of decaying garbage in her neighbor’s yard. 
Therefore look well to the surrouudings. Abolish filth, remove damp- 
ness and all sources of foul air, especially from living and sleeping 
rooms. Disinfect thoroughly all suspected places in yards and neglected 
corners, and often and again, those foul repositories of pollution, the privy 
vault and the cesspool, which of all filth influences prevail with greater 
force than any other against human life. 
Respectfully submitted, 
C. A. LINDSLEY, 
Health Officer. 
N. B.—The following disinfectant is both verjr cheap and efficient : 
Take of copperas (sulphate of iron) 5 pounds and dissolve in 3 gallons of water.