372 On Chemical Dishifectanta. 



muriate of lime) in water ; or a solution of crystallized car- 

 bonate of soda, likewise in water, into which a large propor- 

 tion of chlorine has been introduced. He seems to prefer, and 

 I think with justice, the latter preparation, although he has 

 employed both with nearly an equal success. 



The numerous and important applications that have been 

 made of these two liquids in France, for the last three years, 

 deserve the most earnest attention. By their aid, the putrefac- 

 tion of dead bodies, though far advanced, has been effectually 

 arrested ; and the preservation, for a considerable length of 

 time, of dead bodies that had not yet undergone the putrid 

 fermentation, has been easily accomplished. The purification 

 of the tainted air in hospital wards, prisons, workhouses, laza- 

 rettos, ships, sick-chambers, closets, sewers, wells, drains, 

 stables, and manufactories in which animal substances in a 

 state of putrefaction are used, has been effected by the liquids 

 in question, in the most satisfactory manner ; and not only with 

 greater ease, but in a much shorter period of time than by any 

 other method previously employed. Subsequent experiments 

 have shown that these liquids may also be used with great 

 advantage . in arresting mortification or gangrene in the living 

 body ; and, it is probable, that further applications of the utmost 

 interest may shortly be published. 



In the hands of the physician, whose duties call him to the 

 bed-side of patients labouring under infectious or contagious 

 disorders ; in those of the anatomist, whose pathological in- 

 quiries expose him to much risk and inconvenience, or who is 

 eager to preserve free from putrefaction the objects of his re- 

 search ; to the magistrate who has the salubrity of large and 

 crowded communities intrusted to his vigilance, — the disinfect- 

 ing liquids have already been of the most essential service, 

 accomplishing their respective objects with a success that no 

 other method previously devised had ever ensured. 



These are facts that rest no longer on the mere dictum of a 

 single individual. They are attested by hundreds of persons, 

 and are held as indisputable. The repeated experiments which 

 I have had occasion to institute respecting many of those facts 

 have only served to corroborate them ; and the result is, that 

 the disinfecting liquids are now generally employed on the 



