Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Constitution and Administration. Introd. by E. Hildebrand - 2. State Administration. By E. Söderberg - Hygiene and Care of the Sick. By C. E. Waller and R. Moosberg - Watering and Bathing places. By A. Levertin
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HYGIENE AND CARE OF THE SICK.
281
There are water-works with good water in all the larger towns and also in a
great number of the smaller ones. The water-supply is taken from lakes, rivers,
or wells. In the larger towns, there is a thorough system of drainage. Both
in the towns and in the country, general cleanliness prevails, the maintenance
of which is subjected to proper inspection.
To prevent the introduction of infectious diseases from abroad, such as plague
or cholera, certain rules are laid down. A vessel or its cargo from ports abroad
stricken with plague or cholera is disinfected at certain quarantine stations: two
such are to be found situated in the remote regions of the archipelagoes, viz.
Fejan on the east and Känsö on the west coast. During a time of plague or
cholera, when the introduction of these diseases threatens, the Board of Trade
issues notice of it, and these quarantine stations, and ten other places for
observing suspicious cases, scattered over the archipelago on the east, south and
west coasts of the kingdom, become active. Persons coming from districts where
the cholera has broken out are subjected to inspection for some days following
the time of landing, and no ship must be brought to a Swedish port from
plague-stricken places, before it has been inspected by the medical officer at one
of above-mentioned stations.
Every child is required by law to be vaccinated before attaining the
age of two years. No one is admitted to any public school unless he has
been vaccinated or has had the small-pox. Not only doctors, but also
parishclerks, midwives, and certain other persons of both sexes, provided
with certificates of requisite knowledge in the art of inoculation, are
allowed to vaccinate. Re-vaccination is not obligatory, except in the case
of recruits for the regular army. There are a large number of vaccinators,
one or more in every commune. Vaccination is supervised by the Board of
Health, medical officers, the clergy, etc. In order to provide a supply of
good vaccine, there are, besides the chief depot at Stockholm. 12 vaccine
depots in different parts of the country — under the superintendence of
medical officers. There is a penalty attached to neglecting vaccination.
Zealous vaccinators are encouraged by pecuniary rewards, gifts of
vaccination instruments and medals. The practice of vaccination has attained
such development and stability in Sweden as to serve as a model to other
countries. Sweden is universally acknowledged to be "the best vaccinated
country in the world". The abundant material supplied on this subject
by the Swedish demographic statistics — of the result of which the
diagram on page 274 gives an idea — has also proved of great importance
for scientific discussion on the value of vaccination.
Sweden is abundantly endowed with watering- and bathing places. The time
since when the country has had health resorts may be dated from 1678, when
the noted physician Urban Hjärne discovered the chalybeate spring at Medevi.
On account of the geological formation of the land, no specially large number
of such mineral springs are to be met with as are found, for instance, on the
continent; and there are no warm springs or carbonic mineral waters. Swedish
mineral springs are chalybeate, and of these a large supply is found, more or
less charged with iron. The springs at Torpa and Sofia form exceptions to this
general rule. The latter, which was bored out of a tertiary layer at
Hälsingborg, contains, like the former, common salt and other compounds of chlorine,
iodine, bromine, etc., and resembles the renowned spring at Kreuznach in Ger-
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