December 21, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
491 
LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The second meeting of the sessionwas held in the Philo¬ 
sophical Hall, Park Row, Leeds, on Wednesday, Decem¬ 
ber 11th, 1872 ; the President, Mr. E. Brown, in the chair. 
R. Parkinson, Esq., Ph.D., delivered a very interesting 
and instructive lecture on “ The Chemistry of a Piece of 
Coal;” demonstrating by experiments the process of ob¬ 
taining coal-gas, and likewise referred to the other pro¬ 
ducts, i.e. ammonia, ammonia) carbonas, nitro-benzol, 
aniline, picric acid, etc. There was a large attendance 
of members and invited friends, and at the close of the 
lecture Mr. Reynolds, F.C.S., proposed “ That the cor¬ 
dial thanks of the meeting he given to Dr. Parkinson 
for his interesting lecturethe resolution was seconded 
by Mr. E. Yewdall, and carried unanimously. 
SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICAL AND 
CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The third general monthly meeting was held on De¬ 
cember 11th; Mr. W. V. Radley, President, in the 
chair. 
The meeting, which was well attended, proceeded to 
the election of three gentlemen as associates, after which 
a lecture was delivered by T. W. Hime, Esq., M.B., 
L.R.C.S., etc. etc. (President of the Natural Science 
Section of the Sheffield Philosophical Society), on the 
“Sources of Vital Activity.” 
The lecture, which was listened to with great atten¬ 
tion, was of a highly interesting character, and during 
its delivery elicited frequent applause. At its close a 
cordial vote of thanks to Dr. Hime was proposed by the 
President, who, in the course of his remarks, regretted 
that only a limited number of members of the trade 
could have the advantage of being there to hear the 
lecture; he hoped, however, that it might be put into 
such a form as should enable members generally who 
had not that advantage to enjoy the next most desirable 
privilege, viz. that of reading it. 
This met with the hearty approval of the meeting, the 
vote of thanks to Dr. Hime being carried by acclama¬ 
tion. 
[We hope to he enabled to publish the lecture in a 
future number.] 
The attention of the meeting was then called to a 
valuable collection of old engravings, being portraits of 
past medical celebrities, which had been kindly lent for 
the inspection of those present by Mr. E. Wilson, Local 
Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
A vote of thanks to Mr. Wilson for his kindness 
brought the meeting to a close. 
LEICESTER CHEMISTS’ ASSISTANTS AND 
APPRENTICES’ ASSOCIATION. 
This society has been devoting itself unremittingly to 
hard class-work, holding regularly three meetings for 
study every -week. In order to vary the proceedings, a 
lecture was delivered before the members on Thursday 
evening, the 12th inst., at their rooms in Halford Street, 
by John Burton, Esq., entitled “Elementary Structural 
Botany.” The subject was treated with considerable 
skill, and illustrated by a number of carefully prepared 
slides, shown under powerful microscopes, including the 
various forms of cells, their contents, combinations, etc. 
At the conclusion of the lecture, on the motion of Mr. 
S. H. Cadoux, seconded by Mr. W. Thirlby (Hon. Sec.), 
a cordial vote of thanks was passed to the lecturer for 
his kindness, which was suitably replied to. 
IjramMttp of SmnMe Somta. 
THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COLLEGE 
OF PHYSICIANS, DUBLIN. 
Wednesday , April , 2 ith, 1872. 
THE APPLICATION OF GASES AS A MEANS OF 
DESTROYING CONTAGION. 
BY CHARLES A. CAMERON, PH.D., M.D., L.K., and d.C.P. ; 
Professor of Hygiene in the Royal College , etc. 
It is impossible to discuss in a scientific manner the 
subject of disinfection without at the same time con¬ 
sidering that of the intimate nature of contagion. 
Enormous quantities of bleaching powder, carbolic 
acid, and other substances are annually used in these 
countries as sanitary agents. They are often solely 
employed for the purposes of preventing putrefaction ; 
but no inconsiderable proportion of .the quantities of 
“ disinfectants ” used is applied for the purpose of de¬ 
stroying the materies morbi of enteric and other fevers,, 
small-pox, cholera, and other zymotic diseases. 
During the decomposition of animal and vegetable 
substances, sulphuretted hydrogen, phosphoretted 
hydrogen, and other offensively odorous gases, as well 
as vapours, and probably solid particles, are evolved. 
The continuous inhalation'of these aeriform products of 
the retrograde metamorphosis of organic bodies may, like 
intemperance and deficient nutrition, lower the vital 
powers, and thereby render the animal mechanism less 
able to resist the influence of small-pox, cholera, and 
similar maladies when they are epidemic. There is,, 
however, no evidence of a satisfactory nature to prove 
that the ordinary emanations from decomposing animal 
or vegetable substances are the cause, per se, of any 
contagious disease. 
If, during the decomposition of ordinary animal and 
vegetable substances, matters were evolved capable of 
producing fevers and other zymotics, it is difficult to 
conceive how the population of towns could escape com¬ 
plete extirpation from those diseases. 
It is more reasonable to believe that zymotic diseases 
are each of them produced by the introduction of a 
specific virus or germ into the animal economy. It is 
probable that some zymotics are caused by germs which 
are incapable of multiplication in the body. Such 
diseases are not, therefore, contagious in the ordinary 
sense of that word ; that is, they are not propagated by 
matters which are cast forth from the bodies of the 
sick. In the valuable Report on Yellow Fever, pre¬ 
pared by Dr. J. C. Nott, and published in the Annual 
Report of the Board of Health of the City of New 
York, for 1870-71, very strong evidence is adduced to 
prove that yellow fever is caused by germs, which are 
not bred within the body. It is, however, shown that 
those germs may he transported from place to place in 
the clothes and baggage of men. Dr. Nott brings for¬ 
ward the most convincing proof that decomposing 
organic matter does not, per se , produce yellow fever ; 
and shows that the germs which cause the malady are 
devitalized by exposure to a temperature of 32° Fahr. 
It is very easy to destroy the unpleasant matters that 
are given off during the decay of organic bodies. 
These matters obey the physical law of the diffusion 
of gases, and spread rapidly and equally throug-h- 
out the atmosphere. When they are generated in, 
or enter, a room, they are readily rendered innocuous 
by admixture with a small proportion of chlorine or 
sulphurous acid gas. The use of disinfectants is, there¬ 
fore, to he commended, because they preserve the 
atmosphere free from malodorous gases and vapours. 
Some kinds of so-called disinfectants* are also of great 
* This term is used in its popular signification, and in¬ 
cludes those substances which, like nitrous acid, destroy 
noxious matters, or which, like carbolic acid, act chiefly as • 
antiseptics. 
