TREATMENT. 151 



or boxes tenanted by strangers is that these be first thoroughly 

 cleansed and disinfected. 



When once established in any particular locality, thoroughly 

 effective suppressive and eradicative measures can only be car- 

 ried out under the authoritative sanction of Government. To 

 detail what ought to be considered as effective and satisfactory 

 is not our province here or at this time. Such measures as in 

 this country presently concern- us are contained and dealt with 

 in the State Act and orders already mentioned, in which form 

 only can suppressive measures be carried out. 



There is one item, however, in compulsory eradicative mea- 

 sures generally insisted upon in such enactments — viz., disin- 

 fection — of the necessity of which it is not difficult to convince 

 the greater number of sufferers in cases of outbreaks of the 

 disease, and the details of which it is consequently advisable 

 that we should be familiar with. 



Into the consideration of the various theories of disinfection, 

 the methods by which those agents termed disinfectants are 

 supposed to act, it is not intended to enter ; suffice it to say 

 that by the term employed we mean the use or action of such 

 means or agents as facilitate the destruction or removal, or 

 both, of the supposed contagia or infecting material, or of the 

 vehicle which may contain and convey this, thereby removing 

 the probability of the contamination of the healthy when 

 brought into situations where animals previously suffering 

 from communicable diseases have been located. Prior to and 

 during the employment of either mechanical or chemical 

 means of disinfection, all horses, manure, and litter must be 

 removed ; the latter — manure and litter — ought to be burned or 

 buried, and air and sunlight admitted freely into the interior 

 of the building. The walls, from floor to ceiling, ought to be 

 well scraped, by which all loose lime, plaster, or other super- 

 ficial covering may be removed ; the same to be done to the 

 floors, and if these are not composed of a close, compact mate- 

 rial, as concrete or pavement, the separate stones or bricks form- 

 ing the floors must have the sand or earth contained in the 

 interstices removed by picking, which can be replaced with 

 fresh material when the disinfection is complete. All fittings 

 of wood, iron, or other material to be well scraped, then 

 thoroughly washed with hot water and an alkali, as soda or 



