Show SMALLPOX PATIENTS how they are handled in tho biff city of chicago the job ot the men who transfer tha of the dread from their home to the pest house L when the electric call bell rings it is for no pleasure drive on which the officers of the health department ar dbent to embark it is one of great danger every precaution has to be taken to prevent the disease from which the patient they are called upon to remove is suffering from seizing themselves at the ambulance barn are two suits of clothes one for each man which they don preparatory to sallying forth on their duty eacle suit lias first to be thoroughly bisin fectea that no trace of a single smallpox microbe may be found in the folds of the garments the baic is true of the van that must also have been made perfectly free from any infectious matter it is quite an easy matter says the chicago herald for a person attacked with smallpox to be removed to the ii before the disease has reached its confluent stage in that case nothing is necessary nece esary but that the patient shall put on his warmest clothes and step into the van where he will take a seafe on a clifair in which he will be ensconced until he arrives at the hospital where he is turned over to the doctors and nurses to avoid any danger of infection or the carrying about with them of disease germs the driver and attendant disinfect themselves and cliance their clothes when the case is a confluent one the arrangements necessary become of a more complicated nature and the two officials concerned have a much harder task before them the patient has to be dressed a great difficulty in many cases for the attendant has as far as possible to avoid touching an exposed part the patient too is usually perfectly helpless a state of affairs that it is difficult to contend with all this done there is still the getting out of the patient to the ambulance and that is done on the stretcher the greatest trouble is caused by de giroua patients who constantly kick off their shoes and make breaks for the door of the van the attendant who always travels inside the vehicle to look after its patients has then a hard time of it he cannot knock his charge on the head or resort to any kind of farce except to seize him by his clothes and forcibly hold him down on the stretcher sometimes too he is quietly humorous in his conduct while in a delirium the gloves are useful in more cases than one if the boxer wears them to protect his knuckles so does the person who attends to the burial of the corpse of a person who has died of smallpox the very worst cases are scarcely ever removed alive from the home to the hospital neither are those of persons who to can afford provide for them in their own houses where they can be thoroughly isolated should the medical inspector of the health department pronounce recovery impossible the sufferer is isolated the aliouse carded and none but the regular attendants of the sufferer are allowed on the premises when death occurs outside the the attendants put on their gloves to pay a call the gloves are of heavy leather and the call is upon the dead and not upon the living it is not with a desire to pay their respects to anyone that it is made but it is that the living and otherwise healthy millions of the city may not have a plague spot in thir midst an hour longer than is absolutely necessary the two men carry with them a plentiful supply of carbolic acid for the corpse must be well sponged with that every tissue of the body is saturated with the powerful chemical and as far as possible every trace of the dread disease which caused death is removed even when the body has thus been treated sufficient care has not been taken to prevent the disease from spreading and the tody has to be wrapped in clothes provided by the de ceas eds friends all saturated with carbolic acid and on the top of everything is put a sheet saturated with carbolic acid in the meantime tho measurements have been taken and a coffin provided either by the city or by the relatives the corple having been placed in this it ia then in a zinc lined box is always necessary in smallpox cases both coffin and zinc lined box must be healed up and then it is immediately placed in the hearse and driven to alie cemetery |