90 Dr. Ure on Disinfection 



found that pure chlorine is pretty quickly absorbed by un- 

 bleached hemp, with the extinction of the peculiar pungent 

 smell of the gas ; but that dilute chlorine blown through 

 among its fibres will blanch moist litmus-paper enclosed in a 

 compact bale, without impairing the tenacity of the hemp in 

 the slightest degree. If merely so much chlorine be intro- 

 duced without agitation, through a tube, into a vessel, as to fill 

 its lower half where a hemp package lies, the gas will not 

 spontaneously mount to the upper half, but will concentrate 

 and expend its energies on the organic fibres below. In like 

 manner, if chlorine be made to exhale from capsules placed on 

 the floor of a still apartment, containing beds and other fur- 

 niture, the gas will be arrested in its diffusive ascent, and will 

 never reach in adequate force the upper walls or ceiling to 

 which the hot effluvia of contagious pyrexiae (as typhus, scar- 

 latina, small-pox, &c.) naturally rise. Should the walls of the 

 apartment have been recently washed with milk of lime, the 

 gas will be condensed on them ; but, if washed with whitening, 

 no absorption will ensue ; for chlorine does not displace car- 

 bonic acid from lime, nor does it combine with the calcareous 

 carbonate. 



We are thus clearly led to the conclusion that chlorine-gas, 

 when used as a disinfector, should be considerably diluted with 

 air before it is distributed into apartments, in such a degree 

 and manner as neither to injure furniture nor merchandize, 

 nor materially to annoy respiration. We must throw out of 

 view those constitutions indeed which are so delicate or fas- 

 tidious as to be intolerant of even the smell of chlorine. The 

 said aerial mixture should be introduced into the middle or 

 upper regions, in preference to the lower, and its diffusion 

 should be promoted by propulsion. Moist litmus paper, sus- 

 pended in various parts of the chamber, will serve to show 

 when the chlorine has done its duty. 



Figures 1 and 2 (pp. 91 and 93) exhibit two forms of apparatus 

 for disengaging chlorine in regulated quantities, for mixing it 

 with air in any proportion, for blowing it into any infected 

 space, and for ascertaining the degree of its dilution at any stage 

 of the operation. Figure 1 has been constructed in the Dock- 



