METHODS OF DISINFECTION 49 



continued administration of minute doses of corrosive sub- 

 limate render animals capable of resisting the deadly effects 

 of the subsequent inoculation of anthrax. Polli of Milan 

 found that dogs, which for five days previously had received 

 daily doses of sodium sulphite, suffered comparatively little 

 inconvenience from the inoculation of foetid pus, which 

 destroyed, with gangrene and typhoid symptoms, dogs not 

 previously protected by the antiseptic. 



To prevent decomposition of the contents of the digestive 

 canal, allay irritation and vomiting, and relieve diarrhoea 

 and dysentery, such antiseptics as salol, dermatol, naph- 

 thol, tannoform, tannalbin, lysol, creolin, creosote, formalin, 

 carbolic, salicylic, and sulphurous acids are administered. 

 Alcohol, ether-oils, and other members of the fatty series of 

 carbon compounds, are prescribed. Most of the bodies of 

 the aromatic series are also antiseptics ; but carbolic and 

 salicylic acids are more active than salol, exalgin, thallin, 

 and resorcin. Creolin and lysol are the antiseptics most 

 frequently prescribed in Germany. The notable efficacy of 

 mercurials in many gastro-intestinal disorders depends upon 

 their antiseptic properties. In the treatment of phthisis in 

 human patients, inhalation of spray, containing very minute 

 quantities of corrosive sublimate, has been used with some 

 success. 



The uses of disinfectants. Perfect cleanliness of the 

 animals and their surroundings, with sunlight and abundance 

 of pure air and water, are the chief purifying agents re- 

 quisite, so long as animals are in perfect health. When, 

 however, contagious disease occurs, it is necessary to destroy 

 the specific micro-organisms produced, and prevent their 

 diffusing and attacking healthy subjects. Pure air dilutes, 

 but it also diffuses, and does not destroy these contagious 

 organisms. 



Water, like air, mechanically dilutes noxious matters, and 

 hastens their oxidation. Sewage freely mixed with running 

 water is hence rapidly decomposed and robbed of injurious 

 properties. Decomposing organic and contagious matters, 

 insufficiently diluted with water, instead, however, of being 

 deprived of their activity, are apt to get distributed, and are 

 liable to assume more dangerous forms. Hence, in purifying 



D 



