DISINFECTANTS. 73 



Ventilation is entirely a mechanical plan of disinfecting, 

 and which it is in the power of every farmer in the land to 

 more or less perfect in all buildings containing horses, cattle, 

 etc. In ventilating, it is only necessary to admit the purest 

 air, and for this purpose have the openings, or ventilators 

 placed at least eiglit to ten feet from the ground, as it is 

 well known that heavy vapors are sometimes seen a fe\7 

 feet above the ground. Also, the ventilation should come 

 from the front or top of the building, as the back of a stable 

 is never so pure as its front. 



Water is the next great disinfectant employed by nature, 

 although moist bodies decay more rapidly than dry. It is 

 a disinfectant by the process of washing, which is mechani- 

 cal. It is in this way that each shower of rain becomes a 

 natural disinfectant. Light is another disinfectant, which 

 seems to have been overlooked by many, Avhen their barns 

 and stables were built. Without light, the rose would lose 

 its color, and man and animals Avould lose and never attain 

 their vigor. 



In proof of the advantage of light in maintaining health 

 and warding oif disease, it is stated that in a barrack at St. 

 Petersburg, there was only one case of disease on the side 

 laid open to the light, to three on the dark side. 



Heat and cold are tvv'o agents highly useful as disinfec- 

 tants. Heat prevents fermentation and decay by drying 

 and changing the chemical state of substances, as it were, 

 by cooking, whether by lire or the sun. Cold, again, io the 

 most powerful antiseptic and disinfectant. Frosts prevent 

 decay and disease, and at the same time share the connec- 

 tion existins; between them. 



(2.) ARTIFICIAL Disinfectants. — Creosote is a most 

 powerful antiseptic and disinfectant, when applied to a part, 

 but it is not easily managed. Smoke is another good anti- 



