DISINFECTION 399 



front of the manger, the manger itself, stall partitions, 

 ground and bedding, are vital points to attend to. If 

 buckets have been used in the stable for watering from he 

 realizes the risk, if watering has been done from a trough 

 he knows the damage is already probably done, but he 

 treats the trough as a suspect and deals with it accordingly. 

 Even this thoroughness will avail little if the nose bag be 

 forgotten, or the sponge or rubbers used in grooming 

 neglected. 



Comparing these two examples, we observe that while in 

 the one case the greatest care is taken in disinfecting every 

 place which the discharge from the bowels could possibly 

 contaminate, in the other the chief attention is directed to 

 those places likely to be infected by the discharge from the 

 nose. 



Take another example, and this time from a place where 

 the contagion does not come from within but from without, 

 viz. scabies in horses. 



Here the expert knows that those things immediately in 

 contact with the surface of the body are the most dangerous ; 

 for example, saddle or harness, clothing, grooming gear, 

 and bedding. He realizes that every place where the 

 patient may have rubbed is probably infected, and directs 

 his special attention to the stall and its fittings. 



In order then to be able to disinfect thoroughly, the 

 nature and character of the disease must be understood, 

 and a knowledge of the resistance likely to be offered by 

 the microbe to destruction is essential. Neither a pleuro- 

 pneumonic nor a tuberculous patient are likely to affect the 

 ground it walks over, whereas one with foot and mouth 

 disease certainly will. While no harm is likely to arise 

 from failing to destroy food which has been in contact with 

 an animal suffering from anthrax or quarter-evil, in the case 

 of foot and mouth disease and rinderpest it will certainly 

 cause the disease to spread. While the blood of a patient 

 destroyed for tuberculosis might be left on the ground 

 without the slightest harm following, that of anthrax if 

 so left will certainly spread the disease. 



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