Treatment.  Prevention.  Sanitary Care.—­Do away with the causes.  Keep your cellars clean; do not have them damp, filthy, and filled with decaying matter, as these all tend to weaken the system and make you more susceptible to the poison.  In the country, no drainings should come near the wells or springs.  Not all water that looks clear and nice is pure.  The “out-houses” must be kept clean, and emptied at least twice each year.  In the small cities, especially, the water should be boiled during the months when the supply is limited and the wells are low.  If more attention was paid to our water supply to make certain that it was not contaminated, and to our foods, especially milk, and to keeping our cellars and drains in a good clean and dry condition, we would have little typhoid fever.  Carelessness is the real cause of this terrible disease.  The milk should be boiled as well as the water when there is an epidemic of typhoid.

[198 Mothers’ remedies]

Sanitary Care of the Household Articles.—­Dishes must be isolated, washed, dried separately and boiled daily.  Thermometers must be isolated, kept in a corrosive sublimate solution one to one thousand, which must be removed daily.  Linen when soiled must be soaked in carbolic acid, one cup of carbolic acid to twenty of water, for two hours before being sent to the laundry.  Stools must be thoroughly mixed with an equal amount of milk of lime and allowed to stand for one hour.  Urine must be mixed with an equal amount of carbolic acid, one to twenty, and allowed to stand one hour.  Bed pans, urinals, must be isolated and scalded after each time of using.  Syringes and rectal tubes must be isolated, and the latter boiled after using. (See Nursing Department).  Tubs should be scrubbed daily, canvasses changed daily and soaked in carbolic acid as the linen is.  Hands must be scrubbed and disinfected after giving tubs or rubbing over typhoid fever patients.  Blankets, mattresses, and pillows must be sterilized after use in steam sterilizer.  I know some people have not all the necessary conveniences, especially in the country, but the greatest care must be taken.  A professional nurse was once taking care of a very severe case of typhoid for me.  I was continually cautioning her to be more careful of herself.  She did not heed it, and finally took the disease and battled eight long weeks with it, before there was much improvement.  Careful nursing and a well regulated diet are the essentials in a majority of cases.  Put the patient in a well ventilated room, and confine him to the bed from the beginning, and have him remain there until well.  The woven wire bed with soft hair mattress, upon which there are two folds of blanket, combines the two great qualities of a sick bed, smoothness and elasticity.  A rubber cloth should be placed under the sheet.  An intelligent nurse should be in charge; when this is impossible, the attending physician should write out special instructions, regarding diet, treatment of the discharges and of the bed linen.