DEODORIZERS, DISINFECTANTS, AND ANTISEPTICS. 
3S9 
oil was spilt over some pigeons and chickens which had been dressed for cooking, and 
were ready to be put to the fire. The birds having been thoroughly washed in several 
waters were thought fit to eat, and were prepared accordingly. Five persons in all par¬ 
took of the meal, viz. the mother of the family, aged 54, and feeble ; a youug lady, 15 ; 
a girl, aged 9 ; and two young sons of 17 and 19. Dr. Shoyer w r as sent for about 
an hour after the meal, and found them suffering from great anxiety, and wfith burning 
in the mouth and throat. He prescribed an opiate—milk diet and quietude. The 
symptom manifested by all was purging, and in every case except one this symptom 
had passed off by the following day. In the case of the mother, after an interval of 
eighteen hours from the accident, she was again attacked with purging, and while at 
her work felt a burning in the throat and mouth ; there were also some pustules to be 
seen in the mouth; she became faint and commenced to vomit; there were muscular 
tremors and great general prostration. The pulse was very feeble; there was a slight 
tenderness of the abdomen, but none of the epigastrium; the tongue was white, and 
showed the impress of the teeth, the feet were cold, the skin was moist, the mind was 
clear. The vomiting continued an hour ; the ejected matter was light and glairy, was 
not tinged with bile, and contained no food. During vomiting, and for two hours after, 
there was a constant tendency to faint, and a deathly indescribable feeling of prostra¬ 
tion. The treatment consisted of application of flannels, wrung out of hot water, to the 
abdomen, a large sinapism to the epigastrium, and warmth to the feet. Ten drops of 
tincture of opium were given every half-hour in whisky and water, and the fan was 
freely used. In four hours the patient was well, but very weak. Fifty-five hours after 
the accident she was up and about. 
Dr. B. W. Richardson observes, in the ‘British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Re¬ 
view —“ The symptoms in this case closely resemble those of a case recorded by Chris- 
tison, except that in the latter death was the result. The mistake of Dr. Shoyer’s 
patients in considering that frequent washing would remove the poison was natural 
enough, although so serious. When animal substance acted upon by croton oil is 
well w r ashed, all trace of the oil seems to disappear; but the volatile acid substance on 
which the action of the poison depends, readily passes into the animal tissue and im¬ 
pregnates it.”— Abstract of the Medical Sciences, from American Journal of the Medical 
Sciences, and British and Foreign Med.- Chir. Review. 
DEODORIZERS, DISINFECTANTS, AND ANTISEPTICS. 
Great confusion prevails in the use of these words, and in the meaning attached to 
them. They result, not merely in verbal inaccuracies, but in chemical errors, and 
serious blunders of the unscientific kind, in the application of chemical substances for 
sanitary uses. The following observations of Dr. Calvert, while especially directed to 
the demonstration of the advantages of carbolic acid, draw important distinctions be¬ 
tween it and substances which act only as disinfectants, such as bleaching-powder and 
sulphurous acid ; or those substances which are deodorizers, as chloride of manganese, 
green copperas, nitrate of lead, etc.:— 
“ Deodorizers. —All substances merely acting as such are neither disinfectants nor 
antiseptics, as they simply remove the noxious gases emitted from organic matters 
whilst in a state of decay or putrefaction, and, as they do not possess the property of 
arresting decomposition or fermentation, it is no proof that the source of infection has 
been destroyed; for noxious smells and offensive gases are not themselves the real 
source of contagion, but merely indicators of its existence,—the real source of disease 
and contagion being due, as proved by the latest investigations in science, to microscopic 
spores floating in the atmosphere, and which, by their ulterior development and propa¬ 
gation, are believed to be the true source of contagion. 
“Disinfectants. —Under this head maybe classed bleaching-powder or chloride of 
lime, sulphurous acid, and permanganate of potash ; they first act as deodorizers, and 
then as disinfectants, because, if employed in large quantities, they will so thoroughly 
oxidize or act upon organic matters as to prevent them from again entering, at least for 
a short period, into decomposition ; but, if the organic substances so acted upon are ex¬ 
posed to the atmosphere, they will again experience decay and putrefaction. 
