CHAPTEE XIII 



DISINFECTION 



General Principles — Means of Disinfection: by Heat; by Chemicals— Practical 

 Disinfection : Rooms, WaUs, Bedding, Clothing, Excreta, Books, Linen, 

 Stables, etc. — Disinfection of Hands — Disinfection after Special Diseases : 

 Phthisis, Small-pox, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Typhoid, Plague. 



The object of modern bacteriology is not merely to accumulate 

 tested facts of knowledge, nor only to learn the truth respecting 

 the morphology and life-history of bacteria. These are most 

 important things from a scientific point of view. But they are 

 also a means to an end ; that end is the prevention of preventable 

 diseases and the treatment of any departure from health due to 

 micro-organisms. In a science not a quarter of a century old, much 

 has already been accomplished in this direction. The knowledge 

 acquired of, and the secrets learned from, these microscopic 

 vegetable cells which possess such potentiality for good or evil 

 have been, in some degree, successfully turned against them. When 

 we know what favours their vitality and virulence, we know 

 something of the physical conditions which are inimical to their 

 life ; when we know how to grow them, we also know how to kill 

 them. 



We have previously made a brief examination of the methods 

 which are adopted for opposing bacteria and their products in the 

 tissues and body fluids. We must now turn to consider shortly the 

 modes which may be adopted in preventive medicine for opposing 

 bacteria outside the body. 



It will be clear at once that we may have varying degrees of 

 opposition to bacteria. Some substances kill bacteria, and are thus 



