CHAPTER XV 



DISINFECTANTS AND DISINFECTION. FOOD PRESERVATIVES. 



INSECTICIDES 1 



The pharmacist should be well informed regarding disinfectants and 

 their uses in order that he may assist physicians and health officers in carry- 

 ing out sanitary rules and regulations in which disinfectants play so impor- 

 tant a part. The pharmacist should know how to disinfect sick rooms, 

 private homes and public buildings. He should in addition be informed 

 regarding the essentials in the construction of sanitary homes, shops and 

 stores. He should be able to give good advice regarding water supply, 

 sewage disposal and on preventive medicine generally. He should be well 

 informed regarding the preservation of foods, the use and abuse of food 

 preservatives and on food adulteration and should be prepared to test 

 foods as well as drugs as to quality and purity. He should be informed 

 regarding the nature and use of insecticides and pest exterminators 

 generally. 



Disinfectant is synonymous with germicide and means any substance, 

 usually in the form of a liquid or gas, capable of destroying bacteria and 

 their spores, more particularly the pathogenic forms. A septic substance 

 is one contaminated or infected with pathogenic or otherwise objectionable 

 bacteria. An aseptic substance is one free from bacterial infection or con- 

 tamination, but not necessarily possessed of disinfecting or even preserving 

 power. More broadly speaking, disinfectant means any ponderable or im- 

 ponderable agent or substance, destructive to bacterial life and it is in this 

 sense that the term is here used. Preservatives may be defined as mild 

 disinfectants; that is, when used in larger amounts or stronger concentra- 

 tion, preservatives become disinfectants. Furthermore, the term pre- 

 servative usually applies to substances added to foods for the purpose of 

 preventing or retarding microbic infection and microbic development. 

 It is, however, also applied to other substances. We speak, for example, of 

 wood preservatives, leather preservatives, fur preservatives, etc., meaning 

 thereby substances which will prevent certain decomposition or other de- 

 tructive changes in the articles named, due to a variety of organisms as 

 mould, larvae, insects, mites, etc. 



1 Each student is required to use the following handbook in connection with the 

 study of antiseptics and their practical application. Dakin and Dunham. Hand- 

 book of Antiseptics. The MacMillan Company, 1917. 

 21 321 



