272 



DISINFECTANTS. 



part peat charcoal, 1 part quicklime, and 4 

 parts sand or gravel, to insure dryness) adopted 

 by the British Sanitary Commission in the 

 Crimean war ; solution of sulphates of zinc and, 

 copper ("Lanaude's Disinfectant"), and the* per- 

 manganate of potash or soda, in solution known 

 in England as " Condy's Fluid " sp. g'r. about 

 1.055, and containing some 6 per cent, of the 

 salt the compounds named being such as 

 freely give off oxygen, as ozone, and which in 

 due quantity and with time to act, disinfect 

 very efficiently, oxidizing even sulphuretted and 

 phosphuretted hydrogen, and attacking all forms 

 of organic matter, so that their prolonged ap- 

 plication may prove injurious to clothing or 

 other fabrics ; while being expensive, they 

 are perhaps generally best suited to the purifi- 

 cation of drinking water adding till they im- 

 part a faint pink tinge, letting the water stand 

 awhile, and then filtering. 



The agents now named being slightly or not 

 at all volatile, their action is mainly limited 

 to the matters to which they are applied, 

 although, by being sprinkled or set at dif- 

 ferent points, or suspended in shallow ves- 

 sels within a room, they may act advanta- 

 geously on the air. Nitric acid, however, or 

 rather the nitrous acid fumes, yielded by it, 

 as when a piece of copper is immersed in the 

 former acid, or when sulphuric acid is allowed 

 to act on nitre, proves a very efficient volatile 

 disinfectant, though the fumes cannot be 

 breathed with safety. It may here be added 

 that a strong solution of permanganate of pot- 

 ash has been found beneficial as a local appli- 

 cation to carbuncle, ulcers, and gangrene; 

 though, in case of the last, bromine is perhaps 

 more efficacious. 



As disinfectants generally acting in the way 

 of deoxidizing or reducing gases or putrid 

 matters, should be named first, those which 

 chiefly abstract oxygen, as sulphurous acid, 

 present in the fumes of burning sulphur (this 

 acid, however, sometimes parting with its oxy- 

 gen and precipitating sulphur), and which, in 

 itself and in its compounds, acting under certain 

 circumstances to prevent decomposition, pre- 

 serves instead of destroying the valuable ingre- 

 dients of manures. Among the compounds of 

 sulphur also proving useful, are the sulphites 

 of soda, magnesia, and lime, and. again, the ele- 

 ment phosphorus, a stick of which partly im- 

 mersed in water gradually gives off fumes to 

 the air at ordinary temperatures, thus destroy- 

 ing offensive emanations in rooms, in which it 

 is so exposed a material, however, which re- 

 quires care in handling, and the action of which 

 should not be carried to excess. Secondly, those 

 agents which chiefly act by abstracting hydro- 

 gen, .as the elements bromine and iodine, that 

 volatilize spontaneously from an open vial or 

 dish, but that also require to be watched in the 

 respect of quantity, while the former at least 

 is a very prompt and powerful antiseptic ; and 

 chlorine, a gaseous disinfectant very commonly 

 availed of, yet, like those just named, liable in ex- 



cess to prove irritant this gas being freely liber- 

 ated by a mixture of common salt and bin oxide 

 of manganese (finely ground), and to which a 

 little dilute sulphuric acid is added, cold ; or 

 from the so-called chloride of lime (mixed hy- 

 pochlorite, chlorinated lime, or bleaching pow- 

 der), treated with the same acid -or with vine- 

 gar ; and which is also slowly given off to the air, 

 or more rapidly to organic matters the latter 

 are brought in contact with, by the hypochlorite 

 of soda (" Labarraquo's Disinfecting Liquid " ) ; 

 by the chloride of zinc ("Burnett's Fluid," or 

 "Drew's Disinfectant"), a material scarcely 

 used for ordinary disinfection, except for the dis- 

 charges of the sick, and then sufficing usually in 

 the quantity of a table-spoonful ; by the pro- 

 tochloride and sesquichloride (chloride, or per- 

 chloride) of iron, in reference to which some 

 authorities adopt a like view ; by the chloride 

 of manganese ; and by a solution of a mixture 

 of this with the corresponding salt of iron (the 

 neutralized refuse liquors from the manufacture 

 of chlorine), one gallon of whic"h is said to dis- 

 infect 10,000 gallons of ordinary sewage. The 

 action of chlorine and the chlorides, now ex- 

 plained, is one by which certain nitrogenous 

 matters prominent among the products of putre- 

 faction are destroyed ; but for a like reason 

 such agents are generally unsuitable for mixture 

 in any considerable quantity with the material 

 of manures. 



Besides quicklime, strong acids also, as the 

 sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitric, are some- 

 times directly applied to putrescent matters 

 which it is desired to correct, and the latter 

 agents, not merely by reason of their property 

 of combining with and removing ammoniacal 

 and other bases, but also for their action in the 

 way of rapidly carbonizing or otherwise de- 

 stroying the materials referred to ; but the ten- 

 dency of these agents to generate, during the 

 destructive process, and so to fill the air with, 

 large amounts of offensive gases, requires to be 

 borne in mind. Of acid disinfectants, Dr. E. A. 

 Smith prefers vinegar, and especially wood- 

 vinegar (impure pyroligneous acid), as contain- 

 ing a little creosote. Vinegar is also, like 

 sulphurous' acid, highly suitable for fumiga- 

 tions ; but both, and the latter very especially, 

 are liable to tarnish bright metallic surfaces. 



Carbolic and Cresylic Acids, and their Com- 

 binations. From very early times, not only 

 the smoke of burning pitch or tar, but also 

 these bodies in substance, and it appears certain 

 products obtained from distillation either of 

 pitch, or wood, among the latter being pyro- 

 ligneous acid (known, among other names, also 

 as wood-spirit, and, when pure, methylic alco- 

 hol), and creosote, have been employed in 

 various ways and to good purpose as antiseptic 

 and disinfectant agencies. Indeed, not only 

 wood and coal tar, but several also of the com- 

 ponents separable in more or less pure form 

 from these some of them, like the methylic 

 alcohol, characterized by properties which 

 ally them to common alcohol, also an antiseptic 



