n 4 METHODS OF STERILISATION. 



material to employ when it is a question of keeping the brickwork 

 of a building dry and arresting corrosion, the cause of which latter 

 phenomenon is probably bacterial. The evil may be remedied by 

 brushing the walls with a i per cent, solution of antinonnin. If 

 it be desired to prevent the inception of such corrosion as will 

 be specially the case when a wall is to be decorated with fresco 

 paintings then the mortar applied directly to the wall should 

 be mixed with about 5 per cent, of antinonnin. The walls of 

 hospital wards, &c., may be cheaply and reliably disinfected by 

 brushing them over with a saturated (5 per cent.) solution of this 

 agent. Full information concerning its successful employment in 

 the brewery has been given by AUBRY (I.), who recommends its 

 use for purifying all utensils not brought into direct contact with 

 the beer. The walls of the fermenting and storage cellars, which 

 .are frequently damp and form the habitat of mucinous and mal- 

 odorous fungi prejudicial to the beer, may be dried and freed 

 from mould by brushing them over with antinonnin solution. 



Ethyl alcohol, in an undiluted condition, behaves as a fairly 

 powerful poison towards bacteria, and, according to R Koch, will 

 .hinder the germination of the spores of Bacillus anthracia, even 

 when diluted with twelve times its own volume of water. The 

 use of this compound of 90-96 per cent, strength is strongly 

 recommended to the fermentation physiologist, since it possesses 

 the advantage over sublimate of rapidly attacking the spores of 

 those mould-fungi that coat themselves with an excretion of fatty 

 matter, owing to which they are able to resist the influence of 

 aqueous antiseptics for a long time. It is advisable, before per- 

 forming inoculations in Pasteur flasks, to wash the flasks all over 

 with alcohol, more particularly the part of the lateral tube covered 

 fay the caoutchouc tubing, and the mouth closed by the glass 

 stopper. The surface of the table on which the inoculation is 

 effected should also be cleaned with alcohol of about 50 per cent, 

 strength. 



The disinfection of the hands is, as shown in particular by 

 FURBRINGER (I.), a very tedious labour when it has to be abso- 

 lutely efficient. This, however, is necessary only in the case of 

 surgeons, and the fermentation physiologist may rest contented 

 with simply washing them with soap and water, and finally with 

 alcohol, before undertaking a delicate inoculation. The latter 

 precaution should in no wise be omitted before handling the ends 

 of the caoutchouc tubing of Pasteur flasks. The susceptibility of 

 the different species of bacteria to alcohol is various, a few of 

 them being able to resist it very well when dilute ; and some 

 even utilise it as a source of energy, e.g. the acetic acid bacteria, 

 which still thrive freely in presence of 10 per cent, by volume 

 of this alcohol. 



Ethyl ether is also a very powerful antiseptic, and is re- 

 commended by R. WOLLNY (I.) for use in sterilising by the 



