64 
DEODORIZER AND DISINFECTANTS. 
through three or four feet of compressed soil. It is in this 
way that matters essential to the growth of plants are ab- 
sorbed ; and thus is seen the existence of “ cycle within 
cycle” in the economy of Nature, each having a determinate 
end and object, so that nothing is really lost or useless. 
But the most effectual deodorizing and disinfecting agents 
— for the latter are generally the former — are those which im- 
mediately and at once cause the decomposition of the me- 
phitic gases ; and with the modus operandi of most of these 
we are familiar. Possibly at the head of them stands chlo- 
rine with most of its compounds. As pestilential effluvia 
always contain the binary compounds of hydrogen, furnished 
by the putrefaction of organic bodies, so no sooner is chlo- 
rine brought in union with them than they are broken up or 
decomposed by its uniting with the hydrogen, and setting 
the bases free. 
Chlorine 
Hydrochloric acid. 
Sulphuretted 1 Hydrogen 
Hydrogen / Sulphur 
Sulphur. 
The chlorides of lime and of zinc are perhaps those most 
commonly resorted to for this purpose. On the same 
account it is that these compounds become so valuable 
as therapeutic agents ; a division we are precluded from en- 
tering upon at the present time. We may, however, be per- 
mitted to observe, that the first-named of these compounds 
being now largely used for the purpose of bleaching, may be 
obtained as a commercial article cheap and comparatively 
pure. The form to be preferred for the second is ce Sir W. 
Burnettes Disinfectant Fluid,” which is a saturated solution 
of the chloride of zinc ; its action as a medicinal agent neces- 
sarily varying with the state of dilution in which it is used. 
As a topical remedy, it is available in all lesions accompanied 
with disengagement of fetor, which it immediately corrects, 
and also acts as a stimulant or excitant. 
Contagious miasmata have been stated to be the result of 
organic matters undergoing change or transformation, and 
which, like ferments, induce a corresponding action in those 
bodies with which they come in contact. Anything, there- 
fore, that will check this tendency, becomes an antiseptic 
and a preventive of disease, by its forming w 7 ith the original 
constituents of the molecule a new compound. 
Next in value to the chlorides, as a disinfectant, will rank 
