A EEPORT ON CERTAIN EXPERIMENTS 



UNDERTAKEN TO ASCERTAIN THE GERMICIDAL AND DISINFECTING POWER 



OP 



RADAM'S MICROBE-KILLER, 



BY 



Dr. a. B. Griffiths, F.R.S. (Edin.), F.C.S., 



Member of the Chemical Societies of Paris and St. Petersburg ; Author of "A Manual 



of Bacteriology,'" "Researches on Micro-Organisms," " The 



Physiology of the Invertebrata," etc. 



We must include among disinfectants all those sub- 

 stances which destroy the life of microbes. The applica- 

 tion of such substances to putrid mixtures results in the 

 cessation of putrefaction, and the reason why such appli- 

 cation remains efficacious is, either that the presence 

 of the substances prevents the development of farther 

 spores into the mature state, or else that they kill off 

 each microbe as it is developed. The precise modes of 

 action of disinfectants must necessarily be various in 

 character. Some owe their power to oxidation, others 

 to a reducing action, while others again may render the 

 medium, in which the microbes exist, unfit for their 

 further sustenance, by entering into combination with 

 the albuminous principles upon which they may have 

 hitherto depended for food, thus converting them into 

 substances which they cannot decompose. In this way 

 they may be starved out of existence. Collectively, all 

 substances which lead by their employment either to 

 the effectual interference of microbian processes or to 

 the death of the microbes which breed diseases, are dis- 

 infectants in the truest sense. 



The object of the experiments recorded in this report 

 was to ascertain the action of Radam's Microbe-Killer 

 on certain pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes, and 

 on the poisonous ptomaines produced during the course 

 of infectious diseases. 



