218 CANINE DISTEMPER 
for boiling or baking, and can better be sterilised by 
washing or soaking in strong disinfecting solutions. 
Application of Chemicals.—A large number of chemical 
substances have germicidal properties, but instead of 
classifying them according to their mode of action or 
otherwise, I shall serve the purpose of this book—and 
probably of its reader—better if I indicate, under separ- 
ate sub-headings, the uses we have for these substances, 
and the chosen agents in each case. 
(a) DistnFecTION oF YaRDS, FLoors, Watts, BENCHES, 
Disues, LEaTHER-Ware, Drains, Etc.—For these ex- 
ternal purposes we need not entertain the same scruples 
in our choice of a disinfectant as would be imperative 
did we intend it to come into direct contact with the 
living animal. Consequently the properties of the most 
toxic of germicides may be exploited, and of these doubt- 
less perchloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) is the 
most powerful and useful. A 1 in 100 solution will kill 
anthrax spores in twenty minutes, whilst the bacilli 
themselves in bldod will be destroyed after a few 
minutes’ exposure to a 1 in 2,000 solution. It is generally 
used in the strength of 1 in 1,000, which practically in- 
stantaneously kills all vegetative organisms. The most 
popularly favoured disinfectants, however, appear to be 
the various products of the distillation of coal, probably 
by virtue of their aromatic qualities-no less than of their 
undoubted cheapness and efficacy as bactericides. Car- 
bolic acid (phenol) in a 3 per cent. solution with water 
will kill all ordinary bacteria in the vegetative condition 
(and of these the staphylococcus is most resistant) in 
less than five minutes; but it is irritant and toxic, and 
in its pure state is too expensive for wholesale use, and, 
like its cheaper and crude form, is not readily miscible 
with water. The impure form, moreover, has an oily. 
character, which renders it not so convenient or pleasant 
for washing various articles: in, water, but it may be 
applied undiluted with a brush over doors, walls, or 
floor-boards. Kaufmann states that creolin (Jeyes’ Fluid) 
