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Art. VIII. On Fumigation. By M. Faraday, F.R.S., 

 Corr. Mem. Acad. Sciences, Paris, Chem. Assist. Royal 

 Institution, ^-c. 



I WAS called on some months since to direct and superintend 

 the fumigation of the general Penitentiary at Milbank, in 

 doing which some precautions and arrangements suggested 

 themselves, which I have thought might be usefully made known 

 for the information of those who may have occasion to apply 

 disinfecting agents to the purification of buildings, either large or 

 small. 



On examining a building to be fumigated, it is necessary to estimate 

 the surface exposed to tiie infectious vapours, as well as the capa- 

 city of the structure. When the air of a place is impregnated with 

 infectious matter, the surface of the walls, S^x., will absorb more or 

 less of it in proportion as it is more or less extensive, as it ap- 

 proaches nearer to or is farther from the source of infection, and 

 also in some degree according to its nature. 



The. general arrangement of the Penitentiary was favourable to 

 its complete and perfect fumigation ; for, though of great magni- 

 tude, yet its division into smaller parts as galleries, towers, stair- 

 cases, (§'C., most of which were glazed, and all of which could be 

 closed by doors so as to separate them from each other, rendered 

 the successive application of the means employed easy and 

 convenient. 



After deciding upon fumigation by chlorine, the next object was 

 to ascertain the most favourable mode of applying it; and I was 

 desirous for many reasons of obtaining a gradual and successive 

 developement of the disinfecting agent, rather than a sudden and 

 short one. The latter mode, though it would have filled the build- 

 ing at once, and probably very effectually, yet would seriously 

 have incommoded the operators, and would also soon have disap- 

 peared inconsequenceof absorption by the limed walls, and from dis- 

 sipation through apertures that would inevitably remain unclosed in 

 different parts of the building: whilst the former mode by continually 



