52 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



disinfectant as can be used by the farmer. It is cheap 

 and efficient, and not dangerous like chloride of zinc. 



Sulphurous acid, or rather its fumes, has, in all ages, 

 been used as a disinfectant, and by general consent it is 

 considered to be most valuable. Its action on animal 

 and vegetable substances is readily seen by the change in 

 color produced. In the form of sulphate of soda, it will 

 arrest the vinous fermentation in cider and other mate- 

 rials ; or if injected into the veins of dead animals, it em- 

 balms them most perfectly. 



For stables and houses filled with animals nothing will 

 answer so well as chloride of lime, or McDougal's disin- 

 fecting powders, applied to the floors and excrement once 

 per day with a large dredging box. 



For empty houses chlorine gas will be 

 found as convenient and good as any. 

 For this purpose, procure a strong wide- 

 mouthed bottle, fill it about half full of 

 bin oxide of manganese, close all the doors 

 and windows, and other open places, then 

 fill up the bottle with the spirits of salt, 

 uTeTrngenerating and retire and close the door. This may 

 chlorine gas. j^g repeated a few times in the course of a 

 week. The fumes that are disengaged will penetrate to 

 every crevice and corner in the building. This operation 

 any farmer can perform himself, as there is no risk 

 whatever. The spirits of salt will have to be kept in a 

 glass-stoppered bottle till it is wanted, as it will not only 

 eat a common cork, but it will, by exposure to the air, 

 abstract moisture from it, by which it greatly loses its 

 virtue and strength. As before stated, this plan of dis- 

 infecting is only to be used when the house is empty. 

 (See Sulphurous Acid Gas in Part II.) 



