CHAPTER XI. 
PRACTICAL STERILIZATION, ANTISEPSIS AND 
DISINFECTION. 
Laboratory Sterilization. 
Physical Agents. 
Heat. 
Live Steam. 
Fractional Sterilization. 
Boiling Water. 
Chemical Solutions. 
Salts of Heavy Metals. 
Oxidizing Solutions. 
Phenols, Cresols. 
Tincture of Iodine. 
Boric Acid. 
Formaldehyde. 
Essential Oils. 
Soaps. 
Testing and Standardizing Liquid Dis- 
infectants. 
Gaseous Disinfectants. 
Formaldehyde. 
Paraform. 
Sulphur. 
Chlorine Gas. 
Ozone. 
Practical Disinfection. 
Sputum. 
Vomitus. 
Feces and Urine. 
Fomites. 
Bath Water. 
Skin and Hand. 
Instruments. 
Clinical Thermometers- 
ments. 
Dental Instru- 
The terms sterilization, disinfection, antisepsis and deodorization 
are frequently used indiscriminately, but it is important to distinguish 
between them. Sterilization and disinfection imply the destruction 
of microorganisms, the latter being restricted largely to hygienic 
procedure, as the disuifection of excreta, etc. A restriction of bac- 
terial growth not necessarily involving the death of microorganisms 
is properly termed antisepsis. Deodorants, as the term signifies, 
are those substances which destroy or mask odors; deodorants may or 
may not destrov bacteria. 
LABORATORY STERILIZATION. 
The many kinds of apparatus and media used in the study of bac- 
teria must be freed from adventitious organisms before they are appli- 
cable to bacteriological investigation. Physical and chemical agents 
are commonly made use of for this purpose. 
Physical Agents. — 1. Heat. — (a) 7/icw?<?m^io».— Incineration is a 
most efficient method of sterilizing articles of little value. The free 
flame is connntmly used for sterilizing platinum needles and platinum 
loops. If the latter are charged with j^athogenic bacteria, and par- 
ticularly bacteria which contain fats, as the tubercle bacillus, it is 
necessary to dry the material by holding the loop near the flame before 
incineration to prevent "spattering." The "bacteria incinerator" 
