On Disinfectants. 101 



In Sweden and Franco, wliere a good deal of artificial nitre is 

 produced, urine, solid manure, and refuse are put up in heaps 

 together with earth and lime, and left for six months or more, so as to 

 form artificial nitre beds. 



The Disinfection of Pastures. — All that can be done is to knock 

 about with the pitchfork tlie droppings of cows, and then apply a 

 dressing of lime at the rate of 100 bushels to the acre. The air and 

 the soil will do the rest. In two or three weeks, provided rain has 

 fallen in the interim, stock may be safely placed in such pastures. 



Articles of small value, such as ropes and half-used-up straps, 

 should be burned or buried. Shovels and stable utensils should be 

 cleansed with soft soap and chloride of lime, half a pound to a pailful 

 of water. Iron is best disinfected by being heated red-hot in the fire. 



PEEVENTIVES. 



Are there any means by which the disease can be prevented from 

 extending ? Undoubtedly there are. There shoiild be perfect isola- 

 tion of diseased stock ; perfect destruction of the infection by fire, 

 chloride of lime, sulphurous acid, or other disinfectants. Inasmuch, 

 however, as artificial disinfectants, if powerful, cannot always be em- 

 ploj^ed, because themselves destructive to animal life, we are jjractically 

 thrown on perfect isolation as the only means at present known of 

 securing safety from the spread of the Cattle Plague ; and the sooner 

 the farmers and the Government recognise this important fact, and 

 act upon it, the sooner will this frightful calamity disappear from the 

 country. 



It is vain to speculate, from imperfectly ascertained indications in 

 physical science, ujion the eflect which certain substances, recom- 

 mended as preventives, may produce in protecting healthy cattle, but 

 I do not know of a single case in which it is clearly sho^\^l that 

 by placing certain materials in a cowhouse, the cows had been guarded 

 against contagion ; sj^reading about the cowsheds sawdust saturated in 

 carbolic acid might do good ; so might Terebane Phenyl, or Mac- 

 dougall's disinfecting powder, or other preparations which owe their 

 efficacy to the distillation of tar ; but experience, our best guide, has 

 not yet furnished us with any decisive facts. 



Experiments with Caeeolic Acid upon Beef. 



Thinking it desirable that some trial should be made of the anti- 

 septic powers of carbolic acid, I began a series of experiments with 

 1 lb. of perfectly fresh beef on the 27th of December, 1865. 



1. \ lb. was placed in a beaker with 2 ozs. of distilled water. 



2. Another i lb. was placed in 2 ozs. of a solution of carbolic acid 

 in water containing 1 part of carbolic acid to 1000 of water. 



3. The third i lb. of beef was covered over with a solution containing 

 1 part of carbolic acid in 100 parts of water ; and 



4. The fourth t lb. of beef was put into a solution containing I part 

 of carbolic acid in 50 jiarts of water. 



The four beakers were covered with ghxss plates and placed side 



