50 t EFFICACY OF DISINFECTANTS 



foul or infected places, solid accumulations should be mixed 

 with some fitting antiseptic, and removed without the addi- 

 tion of water. Infected stables, sheds, market-stances, 

 trucks, and ships should be swept out, and, if need be, 

 scraped ; and dry or semi-solid filth, which proves so ready 

 an absorbent of contagious virus, should be mixed with 

 disinfectants, and cleared away. The partially cleansed 

 surfaces should then be well washed with carbolic soap and 

 water, or corrosive sublimate solution ; brickwork subse- 

 quently lime- washed, and woodwork sprinkled with crude 

 carbolic acid in the proportion of six ounces to the gallon of 

 water. 



It is of paramount importance to attack the infecting 

 micro-organisms as soon as they are produced, and before 

 they have opportunity for distribution. Animals affected 

 with contagious diseases should accordingly be immediately 

 isolated, provided with attendants who shall have nothing 

 to do with the healthy stock, their droppings at once disin- 

 fected, their skin and feet washed with some disinfect- 

 ant, whilst antiseptic medicine should be given internally. 



Sheds or stables occupied by infected animals should be 

 fumigated with chlorine, sulphurous acid, or formaldehyde. 

 The former is the more effectual, and is evolved gradually 

 by treating bleaching powder with diluted sulphuric acid, 

 or more freely by mixing common salt and black oxide of 

 manganese with sulphuric acid. A pound of sulphur, mixed 

 with about one-fourth part of charcoal, and placed in a 

 chauffer or on a shovel of hot cinders, fumigates a shed 

 about 100 feet long and 20 feet in breadth and height. 

 Neither chlorine nor sulphurous gas, properly managed, 

 should cause pulmonary irritation, either to the animals or 

 their attendants. Carbolic acid in its impure liquid form is 

 conveniently applied with a brush over the doors, walls, and 

 mangers ; and carbolic powder should be scattered daily 

 over the floors and manure heaps. 



Carbolic acid sprinkled about the boxes, sheds, and en- 

 closures of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, in Paris, proved 

 successful in preventing the spread of cattle plague in 1865. 

 Similar treatment has secured the like immunity from 

 attacks of contagious pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and- 



