732 EXPERIMENTS ON "CATTANACH DISINFECTANT AND DEODORANT," 



The results of these experiments show that the " Cattanach 

 powder," under the above conditions, possesses very slight germi- 

 cidal properties with reference to the bacillus of typhoid fever, 

 and stands in this direction far behind the " Carbolic powder." 

 In the first set of expeiiments the powder could act freely on the 

 micro-organisms, which were suspended in a homogeneous liquid ; 

 in this case the results were more favourable than in the second 

 series, when the micro-organisms, on account of portion of the 

 culture-medium being a solid and rather tenacious substance, were 

 less easily accessible. I forgot to mention that the gelatine-tubes 

 in the latter case were sown with a platinum-loop full of partly 

 solid, partly liijiiid material out of the flasks under treatment, 

 and this seed material stirred for some time in the liquid gelatine, 

 which was then solidified as usual. 



One inconvenience in experimenting with the " Cattanach pre. 

 paration " was this. In adding to the meat-broth when the latter 

 was less than ten times as much in weight as the former, and 

 mixing the two with each other, the mixture, under a slight 

 production of warmth, and under the emission of a peculiar sweetish 

 smell, began slowly to rise like beer-yeast, and, unless attention 

 was })aid to it, and the glass vessels spacious and high enough, 

 threatened to drive out the cotton-wool stoppers and to flow over. 

 After the mass had subsided again, the inner walls of the flasks 

 showed some of the powder rather firmly attached to them, so 

 that the percentage of powder in the liquid to be disinfected was 

 in reality a trifle smaller than originally intended.* 



The relative quantities of " Cattanach powder " which I took 

 were very considerably larger than those which the inventor of it 



*In looking at one case (10 ccm. of infected broth without albumen 

 -1-2 gr. " Cattanach ") the loss was more apparent than in others. 



