Page:The healing art in its historic and prophetic aspects - the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Oct. 19, 1885 (IA b21908199).pdf/28

 may be, been employed in certain infectious diseases, such as Cholera, Scarlet Fever, Typhoid Fever, and Diphtheria. To isolate the sick and such persons as have been in relation with them, until the very end of the period of infection, to thoroughly disinfect the secretions and other products from the patient at the earliest possible moment; to properly dispose of the dead; to cut off from the public all sources of contaminated supply, whether of water, milk, or other kind of food-these are a few of the principal measures which the experience of a compara- tively recent period has taught us to practise in contagious diseases with results so satisfactory as to encourage us in their further extension. We have, indeed, rational grounds for the belief that if the spread of infection were restricted by law, this class of diseases would soon be effectually extinguished. The result of such measures in reference to cholera poison are particularly striking. Many of us remember the invasions of this country by cholera, and its fatal progress, in the years 1831, 1847, and 1854. When sanitary measures were yet in their infancy, the epidemic of 1866, though grave in certain districts-Swan- sea, for example-was rendered harmless in other places. From that period to the present there has taken place no serious outbreak of cholera in this country, although there have been infectious arrivals on our shores on several occasions, as in 1873 and 1884 at Southampton, Swansea, Liverpool, and in the Thames. This satisfactory result is entirely due to the efficient arrangements made by the proper authorities to limit the spread of the disease. In this matter they acted under, and carried out, the judicious counsel given by that wise administrator Mr. Simon, when acting as medical adviser to the Privy Council and the Local Government Board. I need scarcely add that this teaching has not been lost upon Mr. Simon's former colleagues and able successors.