460 
ON DEODORIZATION AND DISINFECTION. 
the opposite of what is required in that disease. In Dr. Hall’s 
British American Medical Journal for March, 1848, there are 
two cases mentioned of lead-colic arising from Ledoyen’s fluid 
being applied to ulcers. In a case lately, near Montreal, of slough- 
ing of the hands after frost-bite, Ledoyen’s fluid was applied to the 
hands on account of the foetor, and this was followed by frequent, 
painful, and nearly ineffectual efforts to have a stool, and by other 
signs of intestinal disorder. At Quebec there were three cases of 
typhus, in which the proprietors of Ledoyen’s fluid used it largely, 
cloths wet with it were kept applied to nearly the whole surface 
of the body, and other wet cloths were hung over the bed, and in 
the room ; these three cases were, I believe, the only instances in 
Canada, where the fluid was much applied to individual patients ill 
of typhus, and in them it was considered that the lead had a de- 
pressing effect : the three cases terminated fatally. 
The two proprietors of Ledoyen’s fluid asserted, that their fluid 
prevented one from taking typhus, and also that it certainly 
cured one already ill of that disease. The fact of both of them 
being seized with typhus is, so far, a contradiction of their first as- 
sertion ; and the fact of one of them unfortunately dying is, so far, 
a contradiction of the second assertion. This last case is one of the 
three alluded to above, where the Ledoyen fluid not only did no 
good, but where it probably contributed not a little to the fatal event. 
Some may say that this case ended fatally because the patient was 
seventy years of age; but this could not be the reason of the death 
of the other two patients treated with Ledoyen’s fluid, as their ages 
were, I believe, 35 and 38. 
The Ledoyen fluid acts as a corrosive of metals, and I heard of 
two instances where water-closets were injured, and made leaky, 
in consequence of a quantity of it having been thrown down there. 
I saw some tin vessels full of holes, in consequence of the fluid hav- 
ing been left in them for some time. It was found also to injure 
the texture of cloth, so that sheets, pillow-cases, and towels that had 
been wet with it, were rendered nearly useless. 
I witnessed several comparative trials of the two fluids with re- 
gard to their power over feculent odours, and in all of them, I con- 
sidered that the Burnett fluid had much more effect than Ledoyen’s. 
In Montreal, some of each fluid was added to a quantity of feculent 
matter in a couple of vessels : a few minutes after, feculent odour 
had a good deal disappeared from the L. vessel, and almost entirely 
from the B. vessel. The vessels were kept, and a weekaf ter, I 
looked at them : on the B. vessel being stirred, there was no odour ; 
on the L. vessel being stirred, the odour was nearly the same as it 
was before the fluid was added. 
