234 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Among the numerous other substances proposed as disinfectants, or for 

 div--.ii i ^ wounds, the following have not afforded satisfactory results: 



Chlorate of Potash, mixed with clay or kaolin (for example, ten parts of 

 chlorate to ninety parts of white clay or fine sand), which was proposed as 

 an absolute disinfectant, neither disinfected nor absorbed the pus of fetid 

 wounds. The mixture would be in any case much more costly than coal-tar 

 and plaster, and certainly less efficacious. 



Whites of Eggs, mixed with chalk and applied to wounds previously oiled, 

 succeeded no better than simple cerate. 



Powdered Sugar, when employed in layers upon ulcers, forms crusts, 

 beneath which the suppurations accumulate, and hinder the process of healing. 



The members of another group of disinfectants are worthy, in various 

 degrees, of consideration. 



Among these, charcoal appears in the front rank. Surgeons have long 

 regarded it as one of the best antiseptics known. Confined between pieces 

 of linen, according to the process of Malapert and Pichot, it is more readily 

 applied than when used as powder directly upon wounds; but the mixture of 

 coal-tar and plaster, which disinfects still better, and is more cleanly, is sus- 

 ceptible of a simpler and a more general application. 



Coke of Boghead Coal, in powder, as proposed by Moride, 1 like carbon, 

 when employed, comparatively with coal-far and plaster, alternately Tipon the 

 same patients, proved to be less efficacious, less convenient, and more dis- 

 agreeable than the latter. 



Mixed Plaster and Charcoal, proposed by Herpin of Metz, irritates the 

 wounds, disinfects badly, and soils everything it touches. 



The following substances have long ago acquired a place, each in its own 

 way, in the class of disinfectants. 



Tincture of Iodine has been employed as an antiseptic by hospital surgeons 

 since 1823. By modifying the surfaces to which it is applied, it usually 

 improves the appearance of the pus, lessens its acridity, and is, to a certain 

 extent, antagonistic to putrid*infections. It disinfects, however, only incom- 

 pletely, causes severe pain when applied to open wounds, and would be 



no instance contaminated with sulphuretted hydrogen as was ascertained by 

 careful trials. F. If. Sforer. 



1 In view of the claim of Moride (Comptes Rendus, xlix., 242), as well as from its 

 general interest, the following extract; from a report made to the British Secretary 

 of War by Lewis Thompson (London Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply, and 

 Sanitary Improvement, 1856, v. 11), may here be cited : 



Mr. Thompson states that he has instituted a set of experiments having a purely 

 money basis as their exponent. The articles enumerated were each employed until 

 they practically deodorized one uniform quantity of the same mass of putrid sew- 

 age, and the money value of the proportions thus used was deduced either from a 

 broker's price-list, or, where this failed to give the requisite information, by special 

 inquiry from a wholesale dealer. The amount of sewage operated upon in each 

 experiment was half a gallon taken from a single tank which had been recently 

 filled out of a large and very offensive ditch or open sewer. Two indications of the 

 progress of the disinfection were had recourse to in these experiments: oue with 

 paper dipped in sugar of lead, which gradually ceased to become brown as the 

 deodorizing agent was added in successive portions; the other had reference to the 

 discontinuance of any offensive smell ; and the attainment of this last condition 

 was regarded as the termination of each experiment. 



By this means he was enabled to draw up the subjoined table, which shows at a 

 glance the comparative cost of executing the same amount of deodorizing work 



