250 
ON EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. 
covered with the contagious matter into various oils and aromatic 
ointments ; I have exposed them to the action of volatile sul- 
phuric acid (the acidum sulphuricum aromaticum, or elixir of 
vitriol, — Y.), to muriatic acid, and to volatile alkali, and yet the 
epizootic was easily communicated. Its attack was only retarded 
in animals in whose integument were inserted pledgets moistened 
with volatile alkali. The result of our experiments was, that 
among all the chemical appliances the preparations of ammonia 
were most to be depended upon. It was doubtful whether the 
chloride of lime was so efficacious, and whether it could be really 
made to penetrate into some of the deepest and fully charged 
receptacles of the poison. 
Have we any means of thoroughly purifying an infected stable ? 
or are we sometimes compelled, as is done in Switzerland and 
Germany, to raze to the ground the buildings that have been con- 
taminated by the poison ? I am unwilling to advise the extreme 
measure, but I will mention one fact. There was a stable at 
Saint- Laurent de Chemaisset, which for many years, and not- 
withstanding innumerable fumigations, and although the walls 
had been white-washed several times, and the mangers and the 
racks had been scraped, and the beams had been planed, and the 
pavement had been renewed, and every ytensil was carefully 
scoured, was a continued source of infection, until the cattle were 
removed, and it was employed for another purpose. 
A similar object is not always easy to be accomplished, and 
sometimes it is impossible. I have, then, confined myself to the 
recommendation of two general modes of disinfection largely em- 
ployed by Nature; — I allude to water and to fire. They may be 
combined, and they should be, in order that their purpose may 
be effectually accomplished. Considerable quantities of boiling 
water should be brought into the cow-house, in which the 
clothes and all the utensils should be plunged. All the metal 
utensils should be subjected to a red heat ; every portion of dung 
should be taken away, and buried or burned ; all the nooks and 
corners should be cleaned out with the most scrupulous care ; the 
pavement should bedug up; the walls scraped, and boiling water 
plentifully employed in the situations which the infected animals 
occupied. After the reiterated employment of these means, the 
cow-house should be filled, and kept so for a while, with disin- 
fectant gas. It should, however, be fairly understood, that these 
fumigations are mere accessories, and that, in such serious cir- 
cumstances, they must never be considered as a sovereign pre- 
ventive, rendering other means unnecessary, but as merely con- 
stituting an auxiliary measure. The mechanical purification of 
the place, and the repeated application of boiling water, are 
