mildly
sick) should be promptly and thoroughly isolated from the public and
family. In ordering the isolation of infected persons, the health officer
means that their communication with well persons and the movement of any
article from the infected room or premises shall be absolutely cut off.

Except it be disinfected, no letter or paper should be sent through the
mail from an infected place. That this is of more importance than in the
case of smallpox is indicated by the fact of the much greater number of
cases of sickness and of deaths from scarlet fever,--a disease for which
no such preventive as vaccination is yet known.

The room in which one sick with this disease is to be placed should
previously be cleared of all needless clothing, drapery and other
materials likely to harbor the germs of the disease; and except after
thorough disinfection nothing already exposed to the contagion of the
disease should be moved from the room. The sick room should have only such
articles as are indispensable to the well-being of the patient, and should
have no carpet, or only pieces which can afterwards be destroyed.
Provision should be made for the introduction of a liberal supply of fresh
air and the continual change of the air in the room without sensible
currents or drafts.

Soiled clothing, towels, bed linen, etc., on removal from the patient
should not be carried about while dry; but should be placed in a pail or
tub covered with a five per cent solution of carbolic acid, six and
three-fourths ounces of carbolic acid to one gallon water. Soiled clothing
should in all cases be disinfected before sending away to the laundry,
either by boiling for at least half an hour or by soaking in the five per
cent solution of carbolic acid.

[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 173]

The discharges from the throat, nose, mouth, and from the kidneys and
bowels of the patient should be received into vessels containing an equal
volume of a five per cent solution of carbolic acid, and in cities where
sewers are used, thrown into the water closet; elsewhere the same should
be buried at least one hundred feet distant from any well, and should not
by any means be thrown into a running stream, nor into a cesspool or
privy, except after having been thoroughly disinfected. Discharges from
the bladder and bowels may be received on old cloths, which should be
immediately burned. All vessels should be kept scrupulously clean and
disinfected. Discharges from the