ON DEODORIZATION AND DISINFECTION. 
453 
meaning of this act.” The barbarous and disgusting “ amusements” 
of bull- baiting, cock-fighting, badger-matches, &c., are put down 
by a special proviso, imposing a penalty of from £5 to £10 on the 
keepers of such places for every day on which they may keep 
them open or use them for such purpose. Compensation will be 
exacted from any party wantonly injuring animals serviceable to 
their owners. Other merciful provisions are made concerning the 
pounding and slaughtering of cattle, &c. — Times , July 22, 1848. 
Remarks on Deodorization and Disinfection, and on Sir 
Wm. Burnett’s Disinfecting Fluid — the Solution of 
the Chloride of Zinc. 
By T. Stratton, M.D., Surgeon R,N. 
HAVING during the last nine months, since August 1847, made 
extensive and varied use, in various emigrant fever hospitals and 
elsewhere, of Dr. Sir Wm. Burnett’s disinfecting fluid — the solu- 
tion of the chloride of zinc — I beg to offer a few remarks on some 
of its effects and uses. I shall consider, first, its antiseptic; 
secondly, its deodorizing; and thirdly, its disinfecting properties. 
I As an antiseptic, it is exceedingly useful for preserving dead 
bodies for the purpose of dissection. The strength is one part of 
the fluid to forty parts of water ; with this the bloodvessels are in- 
jected before using the common paint injection ; afterwards, while 
the dissection proceeds, the parts may be occasionally sponged 
with the diluted fluid, or the body may be immersed in it for an 
hour or so every four or five days. Some other antiseptic agents 
have the effect of blunting the knives used in dissection, which is 
not the case with this fluid. Other solutions are apt, when the 
parts become dry, to leave gritty particles. The chloride of zinc 
is so deliquescent that this cannot happen with it. 
For preserving anatomical preparations, the diluted fluid may be 
used instead of spirits of wine. 
Besides preventing further decomposition, the fluid destroys any 
disagreeable odour from decomposition that has already commenced. 
It is needless to enlarge on the beneficial consequences of using this 
fluid in dissecting-rooms, where students breathing the contami- 
nated air for several hours a day have their digestion impaired, their 
general health injured, and are thus made more than others liable 
to suffer from exposure to infectious diseases. A great obstacle to 
making post-mortem examinations in private houses is the dis- 
agreeable odour attendant thereon, and which is only questionably 
remedied by the odour from chloride of lime ; but as the Burnett 
