96 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



The value of air and water are then considered, as the great 

 natural disinfectants. Air, especially ozonized air, is a most 

 powerful disinfectant ; and the use of water in the bath is 

 advocated and lauded in the following quotation from Martial, 

 " The Joys of a Life in the Water " : 



" Baiae, the prince of watering-places, 

 Somehow the weather's always fine; 

 The light is long, and the day's decKne 

 Is very slow, and * going away ' 

 Are words one never thinks to say. 

 Eocks with all beauties there abound 

 Cut out of many a distant ground ; 

 Warm breathing onyx fat and fine, 

 And various-coloured serpentine. 

 If hot Laconian vapours please, 

 Here lie, though melting, at your ease ; 

 Two streams supply you all you crave, 

 The Yirgo and the Marcian wave, 

 "Water so bright and clear and fair, 

 You think no hquid can be there." 



The comparative value of disinfectants to prevent decomposition 

 of organic matter, i.e., as antiseptics, is thus given : 



COST. 



100" Common Salt 1.0 



1" Cresylic Acid 4.9 



23^2 Chloride of Lime 7.0 



9".3 Carbolic Acid 14.0 



o 



Special directions are given for the best mode of preservin 

 cattle skins, horn tips, salted and dry cattle-gut, melted tallow in 

 casks, cows' hair, pigs' bristles, sheep's wool, fresh bones, skins 

 and guts, raw flesh, wagons, platforms, cattle-pens, and ships. 



On the general subject of disinfection our author wisely 

 remai'ks : — " It is a very complicated problem. Disinfection is 

 ^' not a magic act, performed by a small piece of a substance, 

 " which removes all evils at once. There are many evils in various 

 " conditions, and each must be attacked in its own peculiar mode. 

 " People must use their reason. Everyone must pick out the 

 '^ cheapest and most convenient disinfectant, according to the 

 " circumstances of the case. Chloride of lime destroys smells 

 " rapidly ; Condy's fluid, ditto, and is itself without smell. Tar 

 " acids (carbolic and cresylic) are good for continuous action, 



