41 
ON MURRAIN, OR THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC. 
must be prevented. All sources of noisome odours should either 
be removed to a distance from the habitations of animals, or 
effectual means put in operation to destroy the exhalations pro- 
duced. The disagreeable pungent effluvia which proceed from 
dunghills, especially those that are watered with urine, may be 
effectually prevented, and with great saving to the farmer, by 
occasionally sprinkling them with sulphuric or hydrochloric 
acids. This practice is now becoming general ; and as the 
addition of the acid forms a salt with the free ammonia of the 
manure, its quality is much improved, and the slow but gra- 
dual escape of one of its most valuable constituents (ammonia) 
prevented. 
The health of the animals must be carefully watched, their 
ailments promptly attended to and checked before they assume 
a serious aspect, and attention directed to the application of those 
means which conduce to the well-being of the stock and the pre- 
servation of the highest degree of health and vigour. 
All houses, byres, or courts that have been occupied by ani- 
mals affected by the disease should be thoroughly cleaned out, 
ventilated, and washed with some disinfecting fluid, before sound 
stock are again put into them. All straw and manure, and every 
thing likely to retain the specific virus, should be removed. All 
doors and windows should be opened, and free currents of air 
allowed to circulate through the place. The walls, wood-work, 
and other parts of the building should be washed with some dis- 
infecting solution; and the substance used should also be allowed 
to evaporate and spread itself in a gaseous form. 
Chemistry has discovered many useful and efficient disinfect- 
ants. Chloride, or hypochlorite of lime, otherwise called bleach- 
ing powder, has long retained a high character for purifying the 
atmosphere of houses, stables, and byres. It is a cheap, easily 
obtained, and valuable disinfectant and deodoriser. Besides 
washing the internal parts of the building with a weak solution 
of the bleaching-powder, made by pouring boiling water upon it, 
vessels containing a stronger solution should be placed in various 
parts of the building, or cloths saturated with it suspended from 
the roof. A more rapid and copious evolution of the gas may 
be easily effected by adding a little acid to the hypochlorite, or 
allowing the acid to filter slowly upon the powder. 
Amongst the other disinfectants generally employed are the 
various mineral acids, and especially nitric, nitrous, and hydro- 
chloric acids. These, although fulfilling the purposes for which 
they are employed, are not suitable for general use ; their odour 
is disagreeable ; they corrode and destroy most substances with 
which they come in contact, and they are also expensive. The 
valuable antiseptic and deodorising properties of sulphurous acid 
VOL. XXIV. G 
