BY DR. OSCAR KATZ. 733 



directs to be taken (see p. 728), and larger than generally employed 

 in praxi. It is evident that as the compound had, under the given 

 conditions, so little effect on the typhoid-bacillus cultivated at a 

 temperature of 31-34° C.,* there will be no more marked effect, 

 probably even less, should it be used for the disinfection of the 

 dejecta from typhoid fever patients. 



In order to test whether the " Cattanach powder " is a pre- 

 ventative of putrefaction, I prepared sorre mixture capable of 

 putrefaction, consisting of ten parts of ordinary Sydney tap-water, 

 with the addition of one part of minced portions of fish (flesh, 

 entrails, faeces). This mixture was contained in portions of 275 gr. 

 in spacious glass flasks, and immediately after it had been pre- 

 pared the " Cattanach powder," as well as the " Carbolic powder," 

 were added in certain proportions. The contents of the flasks 

 were well shaken, then allowed to remain undisturbed till samples 

 were derived for culture-purposes. The arrangement of the 

 experiments and the results they yielded may best be seen from 

 table (p. 738). 



In this it is shown that the " Cattanach powder " proved itself 

 to be a good antisejJticum, when added to a mixture of the above 

 description in proportion of 1:5 and 1:10. With regard to the 

 "Carbolic powder," it acted likewise antiseptically under the same 

 arrangements, with the difference that when employed in the 

 proportion of 1:10, the number of bacterial colonies were numerous, 

 so much the more the older the mixture was ; but the colonies did 



*Typhoid bacilli cultivated in meat-broth at the above temperature are 

 easily destroyed by the addition of definite portions of boiling water. 

 Repeating the experiments by Dr. Vilchur, of St. Petersburg (Lancet, Jan. 

 14, 18S8, p. 87), 1 found (one experiment) that no growth in nutrient gelatine 

 resulted from samples of such infected broth, if only an equal volume of 

 boiling water had been added to it. 



