274 



DISINFECTANTS. 



the use of agents of such character as sulphites 

 and carbolic acid or carbolates, in place of the 

 chlorides (as of mercury) commonly employed. 

 He administered internally the sulphite of soda, 

 and also carbolic acid (one drop, with three of 

 chloroform) ; and though the practice was still 

 under trial, the author speaks favorably of its 

 results. The 13th volume of the Chemical 

 News (January to June, 1866) contains several 

 notices of the use of disinfectants iu connection 

 with the arrest or prevention of the rinderpest, 

 in which, it may be added, the editor believes 

 that carbolic acid serves as the best agent of 

 disinfection. 



For general use during seasons of epidemic 

 cholera, Dr. Squibb strongly recommends, on 

 the score both of efficiency and cheapness, the 

 two familiar agents, quicklime (ground to a 

 coarse powder, and used in mass, and as a 

 whitewash), and charcoal (recently burned, 

 dry, and also ground coarsely), and the mixture 

 of these already named, the "calx powder." 

 The quicklime and calx powder, and also chlo- 

 ride of lime, sulphate of iron (copperas), per- 

 manganate of potash, and Labarraque's solu- 

 tion, are the agents which were chiefly em- 

 ployed and recommended by the Board of 

 Health of New York, during the existence of 

 cholera in that city and suburbs in 1866, the 

 copperas being used in strong solution for 

 water-closets, bed-pans, etc., and the perman- 

 ganate for disinfecting clothing and towels, 

 when not convenient to boil such at once ; and 

 the success of the board in controlling the epi- 

 demic as well as low fevers by these agencies, 

 and preventing their spreading, are known to 

 have been very decided and satisfactory. Dr. 

 Squibb .urges also the value of fumigation with 

 a strong smoke of green wood for the disinfec- 

 tion of empty tenement houses, hovels, stables, 

 cellars, etc., such a smoke carrying with it car- 

 bon, creosote, pyroligneous acid, carbonic oxide 

 and acid, etc., and thus proving powerfully an- 

 'tiseptic and disinfectant ; while its effects may 

 often be completed by afterward cleansing and 

 whitewashing. Finally, besides quicklime, char- 

 coal, and their mixture already named, and 

 even before them in importance as general dis- 

 infectants, he ranks heat, and the various means 

 of disengaging and applying chlorine ; and he 

 urges the propriety generally of occasionally in- 

 termitting or changing the disinfectant agents 

 used. 



Charcoal should be of recent burning, dry, 

 and coarsely powdered. "Water heated to 212 

 proves a decided disinfectant. To destroy the 

 infectious poisons in clothing, etc., Dr. Squibb 

 would heat in an oven to 280 ; while Dr. Tan- 

 ner and others declare that 220 suffices. For 

 dwellings and public buildings a complete dis- 

 infection may doubtless usually be maintained 

 by means of four natural or simple agencies : 

 sunlight, cleanliness, ventilation, and a proper- 

 ly but not over drying heat. 



Several disinfecting compounds of a special 

 character besides those already named, and 



many of them protected by patent, have also 

 come into use. McDougall's " Disinfecting Pow- 

 der" contains sulphurous and carbolic acids, 

 or the former and creosote, and is used in cor- 

 recting dampness and putrefaction or offensive 

 matters in stables, cow-hou$es, water-closets, 

 etc. In England, also, various other prepara- 

 tions, as disinfecting soaps, and Condy's "Pat- 

 ent Ozonized Water " for the bath, toilet, and 

 purification of drinking water, etc., are em- 

 ployed. 



A compound disinfecting powder known as 

 the "Phoenix Disinfectant," invented by Mr. 

 Henry Napier, is now manufactured by the 

 Phosnix Chemical Company, at Elizabeth, N. J. 

 The inventor describes the compound as a 

 sulphocarlolate of alumina, with addition of a 

 small percentage of scsquichloride of iron, and 

 of sulphite of magnesia. The alumina base 

 serves, not merely while the preparation is 

 kept in bulk, to aid in retaining its active con- 

 stituents, but also when the powder is applied, 

 to absorb gases, especially the sulphuretted, 

 phosphuretted, and aramoniacal, so commonly 

 evolved in connection with decomposition, the 

 sulphite contained aiding also in the removal 

 of such gases ; while further, when applied or 

 exposed, the mixture gives off both carbolic 

 acid and chlorine, for disinfection of the air. 

 This preparation is recommended for the pre- 

 vention of putrefaction in animal or vegetable 

 matters or refuse, or arresting it where com- 

 menced actions chiefly effected by the carbol- 

 ic acid; and for the correction or absorption 

 of gases given off by putrid, fecal, or other 

 matters an object chiefly attained by action 

 of the sesquichloride of iron. The mixture 

 may be applied in private dwellings, cellars, 

 streets, 'hospitals, sick-rooms, etc., and for 

 drains, sess-pools, stables, shipping, etc. The 

 inventor states that the compound gives off no 

 injurious gas; that it does not injure manures, 

 but acts to absorb and retain their fertilizing 

 ingredients ; that it effectually removes noxious 

 and offensive emanations, and that it is not ex- 

 pensive ; though his statement further, that it 

 is "not poisonous," can of course be under- 

 stood only in a relative and qualified sense. 

 The disinfectant has been already approved by 

 the boards of health of three or more cities, 

 by proprietors of several public buildings, and 

 others. 



Finally, the reader is referred, as especially 

 connected with the subject. of disinfection (be- 

 sides sources previously named), to the treatise 

 of Dr. A. E. Sansom, entitled " The Arrest and 

 Prevention of Cholera, "being a Guide to the 

 Antiseptic Treatment, London, 1866;" to a 

 communication of Dr. Letheby, Health Officer 

 of London, " On the Practice of Disinfection," 

 republished in the Chemical News of December 

 Y, 1866 ; and to the " Reprint from the Appen- 

 dix to the Third Report of the Cattle Plague 

 Commission, London, 1866," by Mr. William 

 Crookes, and some extracts from which have 

 here been presented. 



