Germ warfare is not over … Who will win?
The war is not over, and may never be. I am talking about the war between mankind and the little beasties like viruses and bacteria. How to wage this war exactly is a controversial topic.
Bearing that in mind, today we take the way back machine to June 1881 where a battle raged with one of the nastiest of the beasties — small pox.
The following article is from June 7, 1881, in the Joliet Signal. It repeats information from the Illinois Board of Health, an early government department concerned with the lives of all its citizens:
“Small Pox – How to Prevent the Spread of the Dreadful Disease – In view of the fact that cases of small-pox have been reported at Elwood and Homer, in this county, and four mild cases, members of the same family, have appeared in this city, and the prevailing fears that it may spread further, we give from a circular issued by the Illinois Board of Health, the following rules that should be strictly observed in all cases to prevent the spread of the dreadful malady.
“Whenever it is known that any person is sick with the small-pox or varioloid, isolation of the individual should be resorted to at once, and everyone in the house vaccinated or re-vaccinated in every case, no matter how mild the disease may appear. The room selected for the sick should be large, easily ventilated and as far from the living and sleeping apartment of other members of the family as it is possible to have it.
“All articles, not absolutely needed and drapery in the room, should be removed. A free circulation of air from without should be admitted by day and night, for there is no better disinfectant than pure air. Care should be taken to keep the patient out of draughts. All discharges from the nose and mouth should be received on rags and immediately burned, and the same precaution should be observed with the crusts as they fall off. Vessels should be kept partially filled with a solution of copperas, or any other disinfectants, to receive the discharges from the bowels and kidneys which should be buried at least one hundred feet from the well or spring.
“All spoons, dishes, etc., used in the sick room, should be placed in boiling water before being used by well persons. Cleanliness in everything is of the utmost importance. But one or two persons should be employed in the sick room, and their intercourse with other members of the family and the public restricted as much as possible. In the event that it becomes necessary for the attendant to go out of the sick room a change of clothing should be made, using such as has not been infected; the hands, face and hair should be washed in water disinfected by carbolic acid or permanganate of potassium; following this, free exposure to open air should be made before approaching anyone.
“Physicians and nurses should never put on an overcoat or cloak in the sick room, to be removed afterward, perhaps, among the healthy, for the air of the infected room may be confined about his or her person, to be liberated when great mischief may be done. Safety consists in exposing to the open air every article of clothing that has been in any way exposed to contagion. “No inmates of the house should venture into any public assemblage or crowded building, such as a church or school, during the continuance of the disease or after its termination, until permission is given by the attending physician. No dogs or cats should be permitted to enter the room of the patient, or better still, not allowed in the house at all. No letters should be sent directly from the patient, and all mail matter sent from the house should be subjected to a heat of at least 250 degrees F.
“After recovery has taken place, the patient should be bathed in weak disinfectants, (solution of chloride of zinc,) clothed in clean, fresh garments that have in no way been exposed to the infected air, and the head shampooed. Some time must elapse, according to the severity of the case, before the danger of communicating the disease is past.
“In the event of death, the clothing in which the body is attired should be sprinkled with strong carbolic acid, and the body placed in an air tight coffin; and it should remain in the sick room until taken away for burial.
“No funeral should be allowed at the house or church, and no more persons permitted to go to the cemetery than is necessary to inter the corpse. After recovery or death, all articles worn by the patient, the room and all its contents, should be thoroughly disinfected by the burning of Sulphur or the pouring of crude carbolic acid on chloride of lime.
“Such articles as can be washed as bedding, clothing, etc., should be dipped in the following disinfecting fluid: Sulphate of zinc, eight ounces; carbolic acid, one ounce; water, three gallons. After immersion in this, every article should be thoroughly boiled. Everything about the house should be thoroughly disinfected.”
The following week’s edition of the Signal carried this article: “Reports have gone abroad that small pox prevailed to a considerable extent in certain quarters of the city, which is not the case.
“From the commencement there have occurred but four cases, and these cases have been confined to a family named Hogan. Two of the cases resulted fatally, that of Wm. Hogan, and a daughter of Richard Hogan, aged 7 years. One of the remaining cases is in pronounced convalescent while the other is recovering rapidly.
“It is hoped now that no new cases will occur. There is no cause for alarm. People need not be afraid to visit the city on account of the contagion, as there is but one case of the disease and that in a remote part of the city.”
Sandy Vasko is Director of the Will County Historical Museum & Research Center and President of the Will County Historical Society.