Instructions for disinfection : based on the circular of the National Board of Health / Connecticut State Board of Health, 1884.

  • Connecticut. State Board of Health.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Instructions for disinfection : based on the circular of the National Board of Health / Connecticut State Board of Health, 1884. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Instructions for Disinfection. Disinfection is the destruction of the poisons of infectious and contagious diseases. Deodorizers, or substances that destroy smells, are not necessa- rily disinfectants, and disinfectants do not necessarily have an odor. The poisons of infectious diseases seldom have any odor. Disinfection cannot compensate for want of cleanliness, nor of ventilation. As so many diseases are spread by a poison or virus which can retain its virulence apart from the body in which it was formed, and can be conveyed by infected articles, or by the air or water to other localities, the importance of disinfection, and its power to control disease, is plain. Scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, epidemic dysentery, cholera, and like diseases, are spread by poisons that can be destroyed by disinfection. Filth is one of the chief predisposing causes to diseases of the class mentioned, if it is not under certain conditions capable of developing them spontaneously. While cleanliness and the removal of all filth are essential conditions of health, disinfectants serve a useful purpose in arresting putrefactive decay, in rendering innoxious for the time accumulations of filth that it may be inexpedient to disturb, and in destroying contagion. Infected articles can be rendered harmless by the use of disinfectants. Anything that has come in contact with the infected person may be the means of communicating disease. As a rule the excretions of all kinds are especially charged with the contagion, either in an active state, or in one from which it is rapidly developed. The degree of contact necessary for infection varies with different dis- eases and the virulence of the disease; but as we never know from what case an epidemic may start, precautions for the general safety should be used in all cases. It may be stated in general that moisture renders the low organ- isms, associated with the spread of these diseases, and their germs