

271 



eommanding the United States forces on the Canadian 

 . These communications warrant the l 

 i In iu-\ niu' tti.it the so-called Fenian expedi- 

 , ntin-ly ;it mi i-nil, ami Unit order and 

 tranquillity may bo expected ti> ]>iw:iil henceforth 

 upon that bonier. leiuevrr, ihii I am ob- 



: i connect with this jjnitifvini; information tin? 

 further statement that reports have reached Maior- 

 General Meade to the effect that some of the Canadian 

 .-'i troops have crossed the line and entered 

 within tin- territory and jurisdiction of the United 

 . It is even said that this entry took place 

 be disturbers of the peace under the command 

 of tin- louder Spear had relinquished their forbidden 

 ;il withdrawn within the boundary line 

 nf the I'nited States. The reports go so far as to say 

 that prisoners have been taken on the soil of the 

 i States, and conveyed to Canada, and that the 

 urn agents have threatened that these prison- 

 ers, together with such stragglers as may now be 

 found within the Canadian lines, will be executed 

 without le^ul trial. It is believed that these reports 

 are exaggerated. Care has been taken by Major- 

 General Meade to have them promptly investigated. 



In the mean time I am instructed by the President 

 to represent to you, and through you to the British 

 and Canadian authorities, that this Government 

 would not look, without serious concern, upon the 

 practice of any unnecessary severity, especially on 

 the exercise of retaliation or other illegal proceedings 

 ujioji the persons of such of the offenders as have 

 falle:i or shall hereafter fall into the hands of the 

 Canadian authorities. I respectfully invite your at- 

 tention to this subject, with the confident expec- 

 tation that no proceedings that are not authorized 

 and in conformity with law will be taken against 

 persons of that class, and in the hope that even the 

 customary administration of the law will be tempered 

 with special forbearance and clemency. In view of 

 the effective proceedings which this Government has 

 adopted in regard to the disturbances on the frontier 

 now so fortunately ended, these representations 

 would have been made by me without waiting to be 

 moved from another quarter. They are now made, 

 however, with the approval of Major-General Meade, 

 and 1 believe that they will receive the concurrence 

 of the Congress and people of the United States. 

 I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

 The Hon. FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE. 



DISINFECTANTS. This term, in its broadest 

 sense, includes all agents which, on the one 

 hand, destroy or render harmless the prod- 

 ucts of putrefaction or infection, or, on the 

 other, induce in organic bodies a condition such 

 that they are temporarily or permanently pre- 

 served from undergoing putrefactive change. 



Thus, such agents are divisible into two toler- 

 ably distinct classes : those which prevent pu- 

 trefaction in bodies to which they are applied,, 

 are distinguished as antiseptics; and those 

 which in any way so act on the escaping 

 products of putrefaction, or of certain diseased 

 actions, as effectually to remove these or render 

 them innocuous, and hence to purify air, water, 

 clothing, or apartments that have become con- 

 taminated with them, are termed disinfectants, 

 in the more strict and proper sense. Agents 

 which merely disinfect, thus neutralize or de- 

 stroy the noxious emanations or discharges of 

 decomposition or disease, but have no power to 

 protect still sound and healthy organic sub- 

 stance against the continuance or renewal of 

 decomposition ; and, in many cases, as those of 



the examples just named, they tend even to ex- 

 pedite the destructive process, at the same time 

 tli at they oxidize or remove its products. 8nb- 

 \\hich remove deleterious or offensive 

 odors, are called deodorizers or deodorants. 



i'les that air serves as a diluent and me- 

 oli;mi<"il medium for the removal of noxious 

 emanations, its oxygen also, and especially 

 when, through any cause, present in the active 

 form, or as ozone, directly acts on many forms 

 of such diffused matters, oxidizing and decom- 

 posing them into products of more innocent 

 nature. Both in the air of the country, and in 

 that of the streets and open spaces of towns, 

 and of course even within apartments, this 

 beneficial action of oxygen is more or less, but 

 continually going on. And the consumption 

 of the active oxygen itself in this process is 

 doubtless one chief reason why the air of the 

 central parts of large cities usually shows little 

 ozone. Indeed, Dr. K. Angus Smith states, in 

 reference to the city of Manchester, that a 

 wind of some fifteen miles an hour becomes 

 quite exhausted of ozone before passing to the 

 distance of a mile within (we may suppose) its 

 denser portions. 



Many chemical agents, and some of which 

 will be again referred to, simply act to supple- 

 ment or rapidly consummate, upon deleterious 

 emanations or other products of putrefaction or 

 disease, this action which the air partially, or 

 at least more slowly, effects ; doing this either 

 in the way of furnishing oxygen, and often in 

 the ozonic condition, or of yielding some simi- 

 larly active element, as chlorine. The extent 

 and variety of relations of the subject will 

 render it evident that the space here occupied 

 does not contemplate a systematic view of 

 methods and materials generally such as, under 

 a great diversity of circumstances, are resorted 

 to for purposes of disinfection ; and, in fact, 

 little will further be attempted beyond calling 

 attention to a few of the more effectual, and in 

 particular of the more recent, of such agencies. 

 The reader may profitably consult also the arti- 

 cles on this subject in the NEW AMERICAN CY- 

 CLOPAEDIA, and in the SUPPLEMENT to Ure's Dic- 

 tionary, and the pamphlet of Dr. E. R. Squibb, 

 on Disinfectants* New York, 1866. 



Summary of Important Disinfectants, Oxi- 

 dizing, and Reducing. Among important dis- 

 infectants of an OXIDIZING character should be 

 named tlienitrates of zinc, iron, and lead (the last 

 in solution known as " Ledoyen's Fluid ") ; both 

 the sulphates of iron, which, like the nitrates 

 named, part with oxygen in large quantities, 

 destroying the products of putrefaction the 

 sulphates becoming reduced to sulphides, but 

 having meantime the disadvantage of some- 

 times evolving sulphuretted hydrogen (sulpby- 

 dric acid gas); quid-lime, the action and uses 

 of which are generally familiar ; the " Calx 

 Powder" quicklime 2 or 4 parts, charcoal 1 

 part ; a compound recommended by Dr. Squibb, 

 and employed by the Board of Health of New 

 York, being a modification of tha formula (1 



