88 Dr. U re on Disinfection. 



in a saucer, is just such a mockery as it would be to appease 

 the famished stomach by the smell of a cook-shop. The subtle 

 effluvia of a pestilence must be combated by more energetic 

 means ; they must be environed with an atmosphere of chlo- 

 rine adequate to effect their destruction. Every thing short 

 of this consummation is paltering with the safety, not of a few 

 individuals, but possibly of a nation. 



But I shall be asked, whether chlorine gas can be diffused 

 through the air of a chamber without injuring the lungs of 

 living beings, as well as the furniture and goods ? I answer 

 yes, when it is distributed on philosophical principles. But I 

 might ask the medical practitioner, in return, whether the 

 corrosive sulphuric and nitric acids may be administered 

 internally? Yes, he would be ready to reply, when suffi- 

 ciently diluted ; and the same answer will serve for chlorine. 

 I have been a frequent inmate of manufactories of chloride 

 of lime on the greatest scale, and I have occasionally found 

 the atmosphere, in certain departments of the works, to be 

 impregnated, in a sensible degree, with chlorine gas. Moist 

 litmus paper would have speedily lost its colour in such an 

 atmosphere, although dyed woollen and calico stuffs, in the 

 dry state, suffered no perceptible change. The workmen who 

 habitually respired this chlorified air experienced no evil 

 effects on their health, nor, indeed, any inconvenience at all, 

 unless an accident befel some joint of their apparatus. These 

 facts prove the safety of immersion in chlorine largely di- 

 luted with air, yet still strong enough to blanch moist litmus 

 paper; which may be regarded as a satisfactory criterion of its 

 activity when directed against contagion. 



In applying chlorine gas to apartments, we should always 

 bear in mind, that it is one of the heaviest of elastic fluids, 

 and therefore it tends to occupy the lower region in preference 

 to the upper. If, in the little cave near Naples, called the 

 Grotto del Cani t the carbonic acid adheres closely to the 

 floor, so that, by rising hardly above the knee, a man con- 

 tinues to breathe in perfect ease, unconscious of the presence 

 of his invisible foe, while the dog at his foot is instantly suffo- 

 cated, we may judge how much more closely a stratum of 

 chlorine should adhere a gas nearly double in density to 



