Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
Thomas & Van den Ende (1941) and Puck and his collaborators (Puck, Hamburger, Robertson & Hurst, 1945; Puck, Robertson, Wise, Loosli & Lemon, 1946) have shown that the application of small amounts of oil to bedclothes reduces the quantities of dust and bacteria liberated during bedmaking. Joyce Wright in her first investigation (Wright, Cruickshank & Gunn, 1944) found that oiling bedclothes was, consequently, effective in reducing the incidence of cross-infection, but this was not confirmed in her later work (Wright, Begg & Smellie, 1947), or by Krugman & Ward (1951). Barnard (1952), however, has recently shown that cross-infection can possibly arise by interchange of bacteria in blankets during laundering. Oiling of bedclothes may, therefore, be a very useful hygiene measure.