374 On Chemical Disinfectants. 



discussed, more than once, by some of the first chemists of the 

 age ; and there can be no doubt, that, after a while, no such 

 thing as a simple chloride of lime is to be found in the water 

 in which that compound has been dissolved ; but that other 

 salts are formed from its decomposition and probable action 

 on the water, and that, therefore, the name given to this dis- 

 infecting liquid, by Mons. Labarraque is, to say the least, 

 exceptionable. 



My object, in the present paper, is to prove by analysis, that 

 the secondj and by far the most important, of the disinfecting 

 liquids does not contain a chloride of the oxide of sodium, as 

 advanced by the French author, and that, consequently, the 

 name he has given to that liquid is inaccurate. 



This, however, is not the only purport of my present com- 

 munication to the Royal Society. Having had occasion, for 

 the last fifteen months, to use very extensively the disinfecting 

 liquid of soda, I have been able to ascertain certain facts which 

 seem to have escaped the attention of the discoverer, as well as 

 of his commentators, and which I cannot but consider as of the 

 utmost importance in the history of Labarraque' s discovery ; 

 inasmuch as those facts afford the only satisfactory explanation 

 of the modus operandi of that liquid in destroying animal putre- 

 faction ; bring to light new compounds ; suggest a method of 

 detecting and fixing putrid animal efiluvia existing in the air, 

 applicable in times of infectious disease ; and, lastly, must lead 

 to the adoption of less troublesome and cheaper modes of pre- 

 paring the disinfecting liquid. These facts it is my intention to 

 submit to the Royal Society. 



That a chloride of oxide of sodium was prima facie not to be 

 expected in Labarraque' s second liquid, was to be presumed 

 on two grounds ; first, because the existence of that compound 

 is still considered as problematical, by the majority of the lead- 

 ing chemists, especially when so large a quantity of soda is 

 present in the solution, as in this case ; and secondly, because 

 mere reflection on what takes place during the process of 

 preparing the disinfecting liquid of soda, according to the 

 author's own formula, suggests the improbabihty of such a com- 

 pound being formed. 



But as both these grounds of doubt might be looked upon as 



