USE OF SULPHUROUS DISINFECTANTS. 219 



mented upon the combustion of sulphur, liquefied sulphurous acid, 

 and the combustion of bisulphide of carbon. The room was closed 

 for twenty-four hours. Tubes containing culture-infusions sowed 

 with different proto-organisms, especially the comma microbe described 

 by Koch, were placed in rooms, together with tubes containing vac- 

 cine lymph. After each experiment the tubes were taken to M. 

 Pasteur's laboratory, and there compared with other tubes used as 

 tests. The process of the combustion of sulphur is the simplest and 

 cheapest. To perform this combustion, it is sufficient to set on the 

 floor a sheet-iron plate a large potsherd on the ground gives a satis- 

 factory result on which is placed a furnace of bricks and mortar, or 

 better, one of those small, nearly square furnaces of fire-clay recom- 

 mended by M. Pasteur, twenty-five centimetres long and twenty centi- 

 metres wide, and having the sides pierced with air-holes. To obtain 

 a complete combustion of the flowers of sulphur, it is necessary to 



Fia. 1. Burner for Sxtlphur. 



take care that the whole surface be evenly burned ; this may be effected 

 by wetting the sulphur with alcohol and inflaming the alcohol. By 

 this method we can burn completely and absolutely as large a quantity 

 as forty or fifty grammes per cubic metre of flowers of sulphur. "With 

 twenty grammes per cubic metre, all of the culture-infusions experi- 

 mented upon were sterilized, except the one containing the carbun- 

 cular (anthrax) bacteria. The activity of the vaccine virus was de- 

 stroyed. The only probable inconveniences involved in the application 

 of this economical process arise from the danger of fire in case the 

 furnace is badly constructed, and from the liability of the metallic 

 objects that may be present to be tarnished. This may take place 



