256 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 



is put at the bottom of a bell-glass wliicli covers a 

 culture of comma bacilli^ it arrests their development 

 and destroys them ■within forty-eight hours. 



When cholera is epidemic, it has been suggested 

 that rum or cognac should be taken, to which salicylic 

 acid is added, in the proportion of 25 grammes to the 

 litre. Apetit verre, or three teaspoonsful, of this mixture 

 may be taken between meals in coffee, tea, or grog. 



Redard has been recently occupied with the dis- 

 infection of the railway-waggons used for the trans- 

 port of cattle. He regards most of the substances 

 employed, including sulphurous acid, as insufficient. 

 The only effectual process is by steam, at a tempera- 

 ture of 110°, which may be easily procured at the 

 railway stations. 



As we have already said, the oxygen contained in 

 air is an excellent antiseptic, and the attempt has 

 been made to employ it ; but the experiments of Bert 

 and Regnard show that bacteria are only destroyed 

 by oxygen at a high pressure. As for oxygenated 

 water, it has not yet afforded the results which were 

 expected from it. 



Finally, each species of microbe appears to be 

 more or less sensitive to the action of different 

 therapeutic agents. Thus the effect of mercurial salts 

 on the microbe of syphilis was known before the 

 existence of the microbe itself was known ; that of 

 the salts of quinine and arsenic on the microbes of 

 intermittent fever, etc. 



