70 



MECHANISM OF DISINFECTION AND HEMOLYSIS 



reactions. Here again we find a curve b which simulates the observed 

 curves for the course of hemolysis. We shall return to this point 

 later on. 



100% 



Time. 

 Fig. 4. The time curve of a process occurring in a group of individuals having a 

 variation curve with the equation y = yo 11 j) , if the fundamental reac- 

 tion proceeds at a uniform velocity (a), and if it proceeds according to the law of 

 monomolecular reactions (b). Here Xi = 1.5 and k = 2. The ordinates repre- 

 sent degree of completion of the process, and the abscissae, time. 



III. 



Various investigators have reported that bacteria in the presence 

 of disinfectants die at a rate which is at any given time proportional 

 to the number of organisms then surviving.^" ^ This condition would 

 be described by the equation 



dn _, 



— = kfit, or ni = HqC * 



where «o and m are the number of bacteria at the beginning of the 

 experiment and at t units of time thereafter, and e is the base of 

 the natural system of logarithms. This is the equation of the mono- 



" Madsen, T., and Nyman, M., Z. Hyg., 1907, Ivii, 388. 



^ Chick, H., /. Hyg., 1908, viii, 92. 



^ Chick, J. Hyg., 1910, X, 237. 



^ Phelps, E. B., /. Infect. Dis., 1911, viii, 27. 



^ Eijkman, C, Folia Microbiol., 1912, i, 359. 



9 Reichenbach, H., Z. Hyg., 1911, Ixix, 171. 



