470 



be severally required for the deodorizing of night-soil 

 intended for agricultural purposes, my experiments would 

 warrant me in giving the preference to the lime, and next 

 to it the iron, as least detrimental to vegetation, and as the 

 cheapest of the fluids when manufactured on a large scale. 

 Those of Ledoyen and Burnett, however, may be applied 

 to purposes for which the others are not well suited, as in 

 the dressing of ulcers and sloughing sores, or in inhabited 

 apartments, where the peculiar smell of chlorine is much 

 disliked ; and a further familiarity with their use will enable 

 us wisely to discriminate their precise and more appropriate 

 application. 



Enough has been said, perhaps, to show that these disin- 

 fectants do really neutralize the most foetid exhalations of 

 decomposing animal matters, and that they may be advan- 

 tageously employed as allies subsidiary to a general scheme 

 of sanitary improvement. Until house drainage is perfected, 

 they may serve to dispel the offensive mists which pollute 

 the air of narrow streets and envelop the precincts of small 

 tenements, but must not eventually be suffered to supersede 

 the prompt removal of all impurities, or do the duty of the 

 sewer, the scavenger, and the builder. 



Finally, all these preparations unquestionably possess anti- 

 septic powers, and as such will form a useful addition to 

 those already better known. Unlike alcohol and the alkaline 

 salts, which owe this property mainly to their having such 

 an affinity for water as to extract it from moist animal 

 tissues, their action depends upon a capacity of entering 

 into combination with the component parts of the animal 

 and vegetable organism to be preserved from decay, and 

 to their forming permanent compounds with it. All the 

 metallic salts, I believe, have this faculty, and the corrosive 

 sublimate and the nitrate of silver, perhaps, in the most 

 eminent degree. For the conservation of meat destined to 

 domestic culinary use, however, it is important to select 



