CHLORIDE OF ZINC AS A DEODORANT, ANTISEPTIC, 
AND GERMICIDE. 
By Thoma.s B. McClixtic, 
Passed Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Public Health and IMarine-Hospital Service. 
INTRODUCTION. 
This compound of chlorine with zinc had a reputation as a deodorant 
and disinfectant for many years. 
It was used for this purpose in a more or less empirical manner 
before we were aware of the existence of micro-organisms or the 
nature of putrefactive changes and long before it had been suspected 
that bacteriology would take the important rank in the field of science 
that it justly holds to-day. At the period when it seems to have had 
its greatest popularity in sanitary work the rationale of disinfection 
was very poorly understood. As the existence of germs was unknown 
at that time, the word ••germicide” was not in use and the terms deo- 
dorant. antiseptic, and disinfectant were used more or less inter- 
changeablv and svnonvmouslv. Even to-dav this is often the case. 
A substance may have practically no germicidal properties, but if it 
has the power to mask or destroy ofi'ensive odors arrsing from matter 
undergoing decay many persons will class it as a disinfectant. 
This error is often productive of unfortunate consequences in 
handling and disposing of infected material and very much augments 
the difliculties that beset the sanitarian in the performance of his 
duties. It is too often observed, aboard .ship, for instance, that the 
master considers his vessel disinfected after using a small quantity of 
one of the various preparations sold on the market as a disinfectant. 
The preparation used may or may not have germicidal properties; 
but, assuming the former condition to be the case, the quantity used 
is usually so limited that, as a rule, all that is accomplished is a cer- 
tain amount of deodorization. 
Of course there is. to a certain extent, a relation existing between 
the terms in question, a disinfectant usually being a deodorant, but a 
deodorant is by no means always a disinfectant or even an antiseptic. 
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