Table VIII. 
I A mixture of feces, thinned by the addition of 10 c. c. of a twenty-four-hour 
I, bouillon culture of Vibrio cholerae Asiat. and mixed with twice its bulk of a satu- 
l; rated solution of ferrous sulphate, was tested at stated intervals by taking out a 
i platinum wire loopful and planting in bouillon. The results are indicated below. 
Time of exposure to iron solution. 
Result. 
6 hours • 1 
1 Good growth. V. cholerae recovered. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
24 hours 
26 hours 1 
28 hours 
30 hours 
48 hours 
I 1 Sulphate of iron does not show any restraining influence over the 
“ development of putrefactive changes unless it constitutes more than 2 
per cent of the mixture. It does not permanently restrain the devel- 
i- opment of putrefactive changes unless it constitutes at least 5 per cent 
of the mixture. 
' As a germicide it has little or no action, even when applied under 
' the most favorable conditions for disinfection. Where the material 
' to be disinfected was flooded with the agent in saturated solution, in 
I nearly all experiments, its action was not apparent, and it failed to 
I disinfect under such favorable conditions seven difl'erent varieties 
of pathogenic organisms out of nine, after an exposure of one hour to 
' a saturated solution. 
Tested upon feces it failed to disinfect after three days, although 
I intimately mixed with the feces^ and when it was applied in saturated 
i solution and in double the bulk of the material to be disinfected. 
^ It seems therefore that copperas or sulphate of iron is of no real 
. value as a disinfectant. The strongest solution has either no disin- 
fectant action at all, or its disinfectant action is so slow and uncertain 
that its demonstration might be a matter of interest, but certainly 
could not be of practical value. 
I EEFEEENCES. 
1 
1 A. Chevaliee. Revue de Therapeutique Medico-Chirurgical, Paris, 1862, X, p. 
456-458. 
n Robeet Koch. Ueber Disinfektion. Mittheilungen aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesund- 
'i| heitsamte, bd. I, 1881, article no. 7. 
^ Miquel. L’Annuaire de Montsouris for tbe year 1884. (Reviewed in Bulletin de 
ii Therapeutique, 1884, no. 107, p. 80.) 
^,1 vSamuel Rideal. Disinfection and Disinfectants, London, 1898, p. 98. 
^ D. H. Beegey. Tbe Principles of Hygiene, Philadelphia and London, 1901, p. 282. 
Edwaed L. Munson. Tbe Theory and Practice of Military Hygiene, Xew York, 
f ' 1901, p. 782. 
Geoege M. Steenbeeg. A Text-book of Bacteriology, Xew York, 1901, p. 189-190. 
j^Chaeles J. Foote. Tbe American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October, 1889, 
XCVIII, p. 329. 
