1028 Transactions of the Amebic an Institute. 



inalarious matter is, no doubt, burned up in the lungs. Hence in 

 all zymotic diseases pure air and deep breatliing is one of the best 

 remedies. 



5th. Artificial means of destroying malaria. — Disinfectants, as they 

 are called, may be divided into two classes. Those that destroy the 

 malarious matter and those that preserve it. 



In the first class are chlorine, permanganates, chloride of zinc and 

 most of the acids. In the second class stand prominently carbolic 

 acid and its associates, arsenic, corrosive sublimate and some of the 

 acids. 



Chlorine is a powerful disinfectant. It has a strong afiinity for 

 liydrogen, and probably disinfects by taking the hydrogen from the 

 infectious matter, thus rendering it harmless. Its efl:ect as a disin- 

 fectant has been depreciated by some, which must have arisen from 

 ignorance of its properties, or from motives not manifest. 



We have employed the permanganates as disinfectant since 1842, and 

 from innumerable experiments, have no hesitation in pronouncing it a 

 perfect disinfectant. It accomplishes the process of disinfection by 

 the production of ozone in its decomposition. Permanganic acid con- 

 sists of two atoms of manganese and seven of oxygen, wliich, under 

 ordinary circumstances, is spontaneously decomposed, yielding up 

 three atoms of oxygen as ozone, and being reduced to two atoms of 

 binoxide of manganese. This acid combined with potash, forming 

 the permanganate of potash in solution, is Condy's fluid. For the 

 discovery of the disinfecting properties of permanganate of potash 

 Condy has received much honor from some, at least, of the govern- 

 ments of Europe. We discovered it fourteen years before Condy, and 

 published jt one year before he did. We are gravely told that the 

 permanganates are not properly disinfectants, but simply deodorizers. 

 If this be so nature certainly made a great failure. She has made a 

 fatal mistake. A thousand circumstances conspire to prove that she 

 intended ozone as a perfect disinfectant, and this is what the permanga- 

 nates liberate. We defy any one to show a particle of malarious 

 matter when ozone is present. It attacks decaying matter promptly, 

 and sound or living matter more slowly. Pus, vaccine virus, and any 

 exudation from sores or ulcers, are at once destroyed. . 



Dr. Beranger Feraud, of the French navy, pronounced the 

 permanganates superior to all others in the accurate experiments he 

 perfurmed with all known disinfectants. 



Permanganic acid, and all the permanganates, are unstable under 



