392 SCIENCE IX SHORT CHAPTERS. 



A NEGLECTED DISINFECTANT. 



WHEX the household of our grandmothers was threatened 

 with infection, the common practice was to sprinkle brim- 

 stone on a hot shovel or on hot coals on a shovel, and carry 

 the burning result through the house. But now this sim- 

 ple method of disinfecting has gone out of fashion with- 

 out any good and sufficient reason. The principal reason 

 is neither good nor sufficient, viz., that nobody can patent 

 it and sell it in shilling and half-crown bottles". 



On September 18th last, M. d'Abbadie read a paper at 

 the Academy of Sciences on " Marsh Fevers," and stated 

 that in the dangerous regions of African river mouths im- 

 munity from such. fevers is often secured by sulphur fumi- 

 gations on the naked body. Also that the Sicilian workers 

 in low ground sulphur mines suffer much less than the rest 

 of the surrounding population from intermittent fevers. 

 M. Fouque has shown that Zephyria (on the volcanic island 

 of Milo or Melos, the most westerly of the C}'clades), which 

 had a population of 40,000 when it was the centre of sul- 

 phur-miuing operations, became nearly depopulated by 

 marsh fever when the sulphur-mining was moved -farther 

 east, and the emanations prevented by a mountain from 

 reaching the town. Other similar cases were stated. 



It is well understood by chemists that bleaching agents 

 are usually good disinfectants; that which can so disturb 

 an organic compound as to destroy its color, is capable of 

 either arresting or completing the decompositions that 

 produce vile odors and nourish the organic germs or fer- 

 ments which usual accompany, or, as some affirm, cause 

 them. Sulphurous acid is, next to hypochlorous acid, one 

 of the most effective bleaching agents within easy reach. 



I should add that sulphurous acid is the gas that is 

 directly formed by burning sulphur. By taking up an- 

 other dose of oxygen it becomes sulphuric acid, which, 

 combined with water, is oil of vitriol. The bleaching and 

 disinfecting action of the sulphurous acid is connected with 

 its activity in appropriating the oxygen which is loosely 

 held or being given off by organic matter. Chlorine and 



