98 On Disinfectants. 



It had been supposed that charcoal preserved meat, but the investiga- 

 tions of Dr. Stenhouse have shown that it hastens very much the 

 destruction of flesh, and all kinds of animal matter. It possesses the 

 power not only of absorbing certain smelling gases — sulphuretted 

 hydrogen and ammonia — but also of destroying the gases thus absorbed. 

 For otherwise its purifying action would soon be greatly impaired. 

 It is very porous, and its pores are filled with condensed oxygen 

 to the extent of eight times its bulk. We have, therefore, in charcoal 

 oxygen gas (which supports combustion, or lights fires), in a con- 

 densed and more active condition than in the common air which 

 we breathe. Hence it is that organic matter in contact with char- 

 coal is so rapidly destroyed. The beauty of charcoal is, that the 

 destruction takes place imperceptibly, and that its power of burning 

 organic matter is continually renewed by the surrounding atmosphere, 

 so that it is a constant carrier of atmospheric oxygen in a condensed 

 state in its pores : the oxygen which acts on organic matter, and burns 

 it up, is speedily rejilaced, and the process goes on continuously. 

 Hence it is that a comparatively small quantity of wood or peat char- 

 coal is capable of destroying a very large quantity of organic matter. 

 The substance before me on the table is part of the hind-quarters of 

 a fox. It has been perfectly inodorous from the first day when I 

 put it in the jar and covered it with powdered charcoal : it was sent 

 me for another jiurpose — to ascertain if poison was in it ; but Dr. 

 Stenhouse having just discovered that charcoal hastened the decom- 

 position of organic matter, I thought that while examining for poison 

 I might further test the proj^erties thought to reside in charcoal ; but, 

 as Dr. Stenhouse has said, the meat is rapidly destroyed, and nothing 

 but skin and bone is left behind. Wood-charcoal, therefore, is an 

 excellent means of destroying animal matter, and for covering up 

 urine. Peat-charcoal might be similarly used. Where neither can 

 be obtained, earth is an efficient disinfectant. 



In a similar manner, and perhaps more powerfully for some pur- 

 poses, quick lime or caustic soda, or soda-ash, act in destroying 

 animal matter. The soda-ash of commerce appears to be superior to 

 quick lime for disinfecting purposes, for the simple reason that it 

 rapidly dissolves in water, and can enter jDorous substances — like 

 wood — which cannot be readily touched by quick lime. Moreover, 

 soda is a powerful detergent, a good washer, and removes what would 

 not be attacked by bleaching-i^owder. 



Condi/s Disinfecting Liquid is a solution of much utility as a dis- 

 infectant, but scarcely applicable to the wants of the farmer. In per- 

 manganic acid we have oxygen in an active condition, operating as a 

 powerful destroyer of organic matter. 



Fire, air, heat, steam (at 250° Fahrenheit) readily destroy infectious 

 poison. Boiling water, and, better still, high-pressure steam, com- 

 pletely disinfects meat from diseased animals, and hence may be 

 used for boiling dov/n carcases of diseased animals, and utilising 

 the fat. 



Of deodorisers, perchloride of iron in solution, sulj)hate of iron, 

 suljjhate of zinc, nitrate of lead, chloride of zinc, may be mentioned. 



