te premises must be kept clean and sightly, and all
decaying vegetable and animal matter should be removed. Home sanitation
consists, not of one, but of many, problems, all more or less complex.
None of these can be slighted or turned over to a novice.

*Destruction of Infectious Material.*--At times the housekeeping has to be
directed especially toward hygienic requirements, such an occasion being
the sickness of one of the inmates with some contagious disease. Unless
special precautions are taken, the disease will spread to other members of
the household and may reach people in the neighborhood. Not only must
great care be exercised that nothing used in connection with the sick
shall serve as a carrier of disease, but germs passing from the patient
should, as far as possible, be actually destroyed. All discharges from the
body likely to contain bacteria, should be burned or treated with
disinfectants and buried deeply at a remote distance from the water supply
to the house.

After recovery all clothing, bedding, and furniture used in connection
with the sick should be disinfected or burned. The room also in which the
sick was cared for should be thoroughly disinfected and cleaned; in some
instances the woodwork ought to be repainted and the walls repapered or
calcimined. The purpose is, of course, to destroy all germs and prevent,
by this means, a recurrence of the disease.

*Fumigation.*--To destroy germs in the air or adhering to the walls of
rooms, furniture, clothing, etc., fumigation is employed. This is
accomplished by saturating the air of rooms with some vapor or gas which
will destroy the germs. Fumigation is quite generally employed in the
general cleaning after the patient leaves his room. This, to be effective,
must be thorough. Formaldehyde is considered the best disinfectant for
this purpose, and it should be evaporated with heat in the proportion of
one half pint of the 40 per cent solution to 1000 cu. ft. of space. Since
formaldehyde is inflammable and easily boils over, it has to be evaporated
with care. It should be boiled in a tall vessel (a tin or copper vessel
which holds about four times the quantity to be evaporated) over a quick
fire, the room being tightly closed (openings around windows and doors
plugged with cotton or cloth). After three or four hours the room may be
opened and thoroughly aired. Since formaldehyde is most disagreeable to
breathe, one should not attempt to occupy the room un