DISINFECTION AND DISINFECTANTS 253 



saved countless lives. It is estimated that in the ten 

 years after the discovery of the diphtheria antitoxin the 



lives of a million children were saved in Franc- alone. 

 State boards of health usually furnish antitoxin for diph- 

 theria and lockjaw. 



LABORATORY STUDY 



It takes five pounds of sulphur to disinfect a room which contains 

 1000 cubic feet of air. Three ounces of forty per cent formalin, u> which 

 is added two and one tenth ounces of potassium permanganate will also 

 disinfect the same sized room. Compare the cost and ease with which 

 each is used. 



193. Disinfection and Disinfectants. — The time when dis- 

 infectants shall be used and the manner of disinfection 

 have been considered important factors in preventing the 

 spread of communicable diseases. The purpose of <1 ^in- 

 fection is to. destroy the germs lodging on clothes, floors, 

 carpets, and curtains. People who care for the sick 

 should know where the germs are likely to be and how 

 to disinfect places where they have found lodgment. 

 The term disinfectants is sometimes incorrectly applied 

 to deodorizers, substances which are used to destroy 

 odors, but the word should be applied only to substances 

 which destroy germs or bacteria. 



Disinfectants are not expensive, and few of the patented 

 preparations are as satisfactory as the common ones used 

 by boards of health. Weak solutions of carbolic acid and 

 bichloride of mercury are chiefly used for killing the 

 germs on the hands and clothing, or f»»r cleaning tin- 

 woodwork in the sick room. Chloride of lime is used to 

 kill the germs in the discharges of the body, and Bulphur 

 dioxide and formaldehyde gas for the final killing of the 

 germs in the room or the whole hoitse before it is occupied 

 again. 



