PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES 155 



mangers are used, the most effective measure would be to have them pulled 

 down and burnt, especially if the wood-work is in any way damaged, and 

 the same course would be wisely adopted with regard to brushes, buckets, 

 sponges, rubbers, and any other apparatus which has been used about the 

 diseased animal. 



After the sweeping and washing have been thoroughly done, all parts 

 to which the cleansing process has been applied should undergo disinfection, 

 and there is no doubt whatever that fumigation with chlorine gas, or 

 sulphurous acid from burning sulphur, is the most effective means which 

 can be adopted; but to be perfectly effectual the place must be so arranged 

 that it can be completely closed while the gas is being disengaged. The 

 ordinary sulphur candle supplies a convenient and satisfactory means of 

 filling a place with sulphurous acid gas. Chlorine may be most readily set 

 free by filling some common dinner-plates with a mixture of common salt 

 and peroxide of manganese, and then pouring over the mixture ordinary 

 commercial hydrochloric acid. As soon as the gas commences to escape, 

 either from the sulphur candle or the mixture of salt and manganese, the 

 door should be closed and the place left for twenty -four hours. The 

 disinfection may be completed by applying to the floor and walls and 

 all parts of the box a solution of any of the numerous disinfectants which 

 are in use. Carbolic acid is most commonly employed, and in a mixture 

 with twenty or thirty parts of water is very effectual for the purpose. 



A place which has been properly disinfected should be fit for use for 

 another animal as soon as the walls are dry, and this statement will 

 answer the question which is commonly put as to the length of time which 

 ought to be allowed before infected premises are again used for keeping 

 animals. Clearly it must be the case that if the infected matter has been 

 thoroughly destroyed or removed, time is a matter of no consequence, and 

 if the process has been imperfectly done, and active infective matter is still 

 left, it is impossible in many cases to say how long it may remain active. 

 In fact, it would be necessary to make a different calculation in regard to 

 each infective disease. Most probably the duration of the life of many 

 kinds of virus discharged from diseased animals is brief, otherwise infective 

 disorders would be more rife than they are. There are, however, always 

 ready for quotation, stories of the wonderful vitality of infective matter, 

 and it is at least satisfactory to keep an animal out of a place where 

 microbes may possibly lurk until the danger may reasonably be regarded as 

 a thing of the past. 



A more serious difficulty is the want of proper appliances, in most 

 private premises, for isolation and disinfection, and, further, the failure on 

 the part of the owner and the attendants to realize the necessity of minute 



