DISINFECTANT 



45 



presence of carbolic acid the development of embryotic life is impossible, and before its 

 powerful influence all minute forms of animal life must inevitably perish. 



1 It may be considered as definitely proved that the vapour of carbolic acid, in the 

 atmosphere, exerts a special selective power on all minute organisms possessing life. 

 If the contagious matter of cattle plague is possessed of organic vitality, as must be 

 now admitted, it will be destroyed, beyond the possibility of revival, when brought 

 into contact with the vapour. French experimentalists have repeatedly tested the in- 

 fluence of carbolic acid on vaccine lymph. They have employed lymph both pure and 

 mixed with a trace of carbolic acid. The vaccination with pure lymph was followed 

 by the usual results, but in no single instance was any effect produced by the lymph 

 containing carbolic acid. 



' On the Adulterations of Carbolic Acid, and their Detection. 



'The official recommendations have naturally brought into the market many 

 substitutions for carbolic acid, in which the valuable agent is diluted with cheap inert 

 bodies, while the price charged, in some cases, is higher than that of the genuine 

 article. Specimens of two such substitutions, called cresyline and carboline, were 

 forwarded to the Koyal Cattle Plague Commission for approval, "as being more 

 certain disinfectants than most of the carbolic acids now being sold to the public, 

 many of which contain but a very small percentage of that acid." It was stated that 

 the preparations contained over 60 per cent, of carbolic acid, and were miscible with 

 water. As it was possible from these- and other reputed advantages that the prepara- 



TABLES OF DISINFECTION, FROM KEPOBT TO COMMISSIONERS ON CATTLE PLAGOJ, 

 1867, AND 'DISINFECTANTS' BY DB. ANGTJS SMITH, 1869. 



Gases evolved with various Disinfectants acting in Water. 



