BY SULPHUR 441 



it forms in albuminous liquids an albuminate of mercury which is 

 inactive. Dilute solutions have the further disadvantage of being 

 unstable. Various authorities recommend a solution of 1-500 as 

 a germicide, and much weaker solutions are of course antiseptic. 

 An ounce each of corrosive sublimate and hydrochloric acid in 3 

 gallons of water makes an efficient disinfectant. 



Potassium permanganate is, of course, the chief substance in 

 Gondy's fluid, as zinc chloride is in Burnett's disinfecting fluid. A 5 

 per cent, of the former and a 2J per cent, of the latter are germicidal. 

 Solutions are used for street-cleansing. 



Boracic acid is used as an antiseptic with which to wash sore 

 eyes, or preserve tinned foods or milk. It is not a strong germicide 

 (it inhibits rather than kills), but an unirritating and effective wash. 

 Many cases of its addition to milk have found their way into the 

 law courts owing to cumulative poisoning, and as a rule its use as a 

 food perservative should be deprecated. 



Carbolic acid has come much into prominence as an antiseptic 

 since its adoption by Lister in antiseptic surgery. It is cheap, 

 volatile, and effective. One part in 40 is antiseptic, and 1 in 20 

 germicidal. As a wash for the hands the former is used, and a 

 weaker solution for the body generally. Carbolic soap and similar 

 toilette combinations are now very common. At one time it 

 appeared as if corrosive sublimate would take the place of carbolic 

 acid as an antiseptic solution, but a large number of experiments 

 have confirmed opinion in favour of carbolic. Crookshank found 

 that carbolic acid, 1 in 40, acting for only one minute, was sufficient 

 to destroy Streptococcus pyogenes, S. erysipelatis, and Staphylococcus 

 pyogencs aureus, and in the strength of 1 in 20 carbolic acid completely 

 sterilised tubercular sputum when shaken up with it for one minute. 

 Klein, Houston, and Gordon, and other workers have found a 5 per cent, 

 solution of carbolic to be a reliable disinfectant for almost all bacteria. 

 Cresol, a member of the phenol series, is a good disinfectant and 

 the active element in lysol, Jeye's fluid, creolin, izal, and other 

 similar substances, which have been recently introduced and have 

 proved efficacious as disinfectants. 



Sulphurous acid is one of the commonest disinfectants employed 

 for fumigation the old orthodox method of disinfecting a room in 

 which a case of infective disease had been nursed. It is evolved, of 

 course, by burning sulphur. For each thousand cubic feet from 1 

 to 5 Ibs. of sulphur is used, and the walls may be washed with 

 carbolic acid. Dr Kenwood carried out some experiments in 1896 

 which appeared to support a belief in the disinfecting power of sulphur 

 fumes.* But he has since advocated formaldehyde as preferable. 

 He found that the B. diphtherice was not killed by sulphur though 

 Brit. Med. Jour., 1896 (August), p. 439. 



