224 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



As the stools or dejecta of typhoid-fever patients 

 contain the typhoid bacilli, they are highly infec- 

 tious ; consequently they should always be disin- 

 fected before being thrown away. This would 

 greatly interfere with the spread of the disease. 

 Several authors have recommended carbolic acid or 

 mercuric chloride for disinfecting the stools ; but 

 iron sulphate, according to Jalan de la Croix, is far 

 more powerful than carbolic acid, and is only 

 slightly inferior to mercuric chloride : besides, iron 

 sulphate is a cheap disinfectant, non-poisonous and 

 inodorous, and therefore may safely be recom- 

 mended for the purpose of disinfecting the stools of 

 patients suffering from typhoid fever and other 

 infectious diseases. The author 1 has proved the 

 high value of iron sulphate as a germicidal and 

 fungicidal agent ; and this compound readily de- 

 stroys Bacillus typliosus. It may be stated that 

 Dr. Proust 2 has used, for a number of years, iron 

 sulphate to disinfect the stools in cases of typhoid 

 fever. 



Bacillus typhosus forms a ptomaine, which has 

 been extracted from pure cultures of the microbe, 

 ill glycerine-bouillon (3: 100), by Brieger. 3 This 



Physical Chemistry, p. 605 ; and S. T. Griffiths in the Tarn- 

 worth Herald, August 15 and 22, 1891. 



1 Proceedings of fioyal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv. ; Journal 

 of Chemical Society, 1883-87 ; Chemical News, vols. xlvii.-lvi. ; 

 Bulletin de la Societd Chimique de Paris, 1889, p. 667 ; The 

 Diseases of Crops (G. Bell & Sons). 



s Traitd tf Hygiene. 



3 Untersuchungen ilber Ptomaine, 1886, p. 85 ; and Virchow's 

 Archiv, 1889, p. 488. See also Gautier's Chimie Bioloyitjiie 

 (1892), p. 269. 



