447 



The Chairman now called upon Dr. Wm. Alexander to 

 read the first Paper : — 



ON THE POWERS OF DISINFECTING AGENTS, AS AUXILIARY 

 TO SANITARY MEASURES. BY WM. ALEXANDER, ESQ., 

 M.D., PHYSICIAN TO THE HALIFAX INFIRMARY AND 

 DISPENSARY. 



The great prevalence of an infectious fever, and the in- 

 troduction to Parliament of a sanitary measure, have of late 

 invested these agents with more than ordinary public interest. 

 They are not proposed merely as antiseptics possessing the 

 power of arresting or preventing organized bodies from 

 passing into a state of decomposition, but the means, as the 

 term would imply, whereby the air especially, and other sub- 

 stances, are to be freed from the taint of subtle particles, 

 sometimes noxious to the sense of smell only, and sometimes 

 to life and health. Their operation, however, is necessarily 

 confined to comparatively limited spaces within and around 

 the dwellings of man, and cannot be supposed to extend 

 to the more widely diff'used essence of marsh miasma, nor 

 materially to check the approach of devastating epidemics. 

 They will not dispense with the approved drainage of the 

 land in the one case, nor the well adjusted ventilation, 

 sewerage, and good personal and domestic management best 

 fitted to receive such visitations, in the other. 



In order correctly to appreciate the probable influence of 

 disinfectants, perhaps I ought to say something of malaria, 

 a word much employed by medical men to designate a 

 peculiar condition of the atmosphere found to be unfavour- 

 able to the preservation of health, and capable at any time, 

 in susceptible subjects, of inducing disease. Of the precise 

 chemical and physical properties of the matter of infection, 

 we are not always well informed. I have much reason to 



K K 2 



