558 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 11, 18', 3'. 
table life to take place in solutions in an hour or two, 
organic solutions might be kept for an almost indefinite 
period of time exposed to the air without producing the 
slightest appearance of animal life. It might be said 
that the infectious matter of small-pox or other con¬ 
tagious diseases might be cells of plants of different 
kinds of fungi, and that in that way germs of disease 
•would float in the atmosphere ; but the whole drift of 
scientific investigation pointed in a different way, and 
showed that animal infectious matter—the contagium of 
disease—was a non-sjluble solid substance, and the ex¬ 
periences of mankind proved that these matters were 
extremely small. It was probable that they adhered to 
solid substances, and that they clung to our clothes. If 
they -were floating about in the air, it was utterly im¬ 
possible that the germs of typhus fever, of small-pox, or 
of scarlatina could linger for months in rooms, as they 
had been proved they do, for the air was renewed 
hundreds of times in a day. The great use of the dis¬ 
infection at present employed was that it obliged people 
to open the windows and let in the fresh air. They all 
knew how well the Germans did everything in scientific 
and medical matters, and he would mention the results 
of their experience of disinfection during the visitation 
of cholera in Leipsic in 1866. The chemical professor, 
Cams, was appointed head disinfector of the town, which 
was divided into 100 districts, each of which had a separate 
inspector. Never wa3 disinfection more thoroughly 
carried out. Every house in which cholera appeared 
was disinfected with chlorine gas. And what was the 
result ? There had been thirteen outbreaks of cholera 
in Leipsic since the first appearance of the disease in 
Europe, and never was the attack so severe as in the 
year 1866, when disinfection was carried out in so care¬ 
ful a manner. It was the same in Stettin and Erfurth, 
where disinfection -was carried out under the orders of 
the Government and by a staff such as we could not 
have in this country. The following observations, which 
appeared in the Lancet , expressed his opinions on the 
subject of disinfection much more clearly and tersely than 
anything he could say:—“ Recent experience has proved 
the insufficiency of the ordinary process of disinfecting 
dwelling-rooms without at the same time stripping off 
the paper and washing the walls and painted surfaces 
with caustic soda. In Manchester nearly all the men 
engaged in this duty have had fever or infectious disease, 
although the houses previous to their visits had been 
disinfected by chlorine, carbolic acid, etc. It is believed 
that contagious matter is retained in the paper, particu¬ 
larly when a number of layers have accumulated on the 
walls. In some cases the men removed as many as fifteen 
coats of paper, and they describe a fusty odour, which of 
itself may probably give rise to fever. We would recall 
to our readers the case of the Knights bridge Barracks, 
where the accumulation of successive layers of size and 
paper formed a nidus for thousands of maggots. We 
must not, therefore, be satisfied with mere cleaning, 
whitewashing, and re-painting, but insist also on the 
cleansing and scouring of the walls. It is satisfactory to 
find that the recurrence of fever in the same houses in 
Manchester has greatly diminished since the introduc¬ 
tion of this thorough mode of cleansing.” Dr. Cameron 
proceeded to say that his views had been adopted by the 
Public Health Committee of the Corporation. They had 
increased their staff, and now, instead of merely disinfect¬ 
ing a room with chlorine gas, they removed the paper, 
if there were any, from the walls; scraped off the old 
whitewash, and whitewashed the walls afresh. If the 
whitewash did not destroy the infectious matter, at all 
events it imprisoned it. By the use of common water 
and whitewashing mom good would be effected than by 
the circulation of thousands of feet of chlorine gas. 
Dr. Hayden said he was particularly pleased at 
hearing Mr. Tichborne’s paper read so soon after the 
paper of Dr. Cameron, which, with all respect to him 
he thought missed the point. Dr. Cameron, he thought’ 
meant to convey that germs, bacteria in particular, wern- 
identical with the materia morbi of epidemic disease. 
Dr. Cameron said that he did not mean to convey that. 
Dr. Hayden : Dr. Cameron said that the gases used as- 
disinfectants were unable to destroy bacteria ; therefore, 
they were useless as disinfectants in epidemic diseases. 
He had alluded to the experiments of Dr. Burdon- 
Sanderson ; but when that gentleman was questioned 
on the point in a recent debate he declined to say that 
bacteria were themselves the materia morbi. The opinion 
he expressed confirmed the view taken by Mr. Tichborne, 
for he used the words that they might be carriers of 
the disease. Dr. Cameron seemed to think the atmo¬ 
sphere could not be a medium for the conveyance of disease.. 
That, however, he (Dr. Hayden) doubted. Dr. Cameron,, 
that evening, said it would be sufficient to cleanse the 
walls, but if it be true that the air was impregnated with 
organic matters, every one of which might be the medium 
for conveying the materia morbi of disease, he could not 
see how that could be neutralized without acting on the 
whole body of air in the room. He was glad to hear 
this practical paper of Mr. Tichborne, because the 
opinions urged in it had fallen in with his own precon¬ 
ceived views. 
Dr. Cameron: What I meant to say was that if gaseous 
disinfectants did not destroy those tiny creatures, the bac¬ 
teria, or destroy the contagious character of vaccine 
lymph, it was not likely to destroy the contagious matter 
of other diseases. I, therefore, said that unless they are- 
applied dissolved in liquids, they are inefficacious. 
Dr. C. Moore said that disinfection, as at present car¬ 
ried out in Dublin, was of very little use. In many 
parts of the Liberty the houses were nothing but a mass 
of infection, and the mere whitewashing of the walls 
would be ineffectual to destroy it. As long as the old 
floors of these houses were left full of the dirt of ages, the 
debris of persons who had suffered from countless epi¬ 
demics, they must expect disease to prevail in these lo¬ 
calities. Nothing but the most thorough cleansing of' 
these houses would do good, and, indeed, many of them 
ought to be thrown down altogether. 
Mr. Tichborne, in reply, said that Dr. Cameron, whn 
had not heard the whole of his paper, had mistaken the- 
drift of it. His theory was that the contagious matter 
of small-pox was a substance which was carried on the 
atmospheric rafts, and deposited on the clothes. Before 
it could be deposited on the clothes or on walls, it must 
have passed through the air; and he proposed to act 
upon it by gaseous disinfectants. Dr. Cameron be¬ 
lieved in the germ theory of disease generally. There 
was evidently something in it; but if he believed in it,, 
one thing was self-evident—namely, that non-volatile 
disinfectants could do no good, for they could not touch 
it; but volatile disinfectants would be found effectual; 
and this was wonderfully borne out by the case he had. 
stated that evening, which was only one of severaL 
cases that had occurred under his own observation. 
Dr. Cameron: What do you think of the spray mode 
of applying disinfectants F 
Mr. Tichborne replied that it might be very usefuL 
Disinfection was generally applied once, twice, or 
thrice, sometimes at long intervals; and that method 
was quite ineffectual. It must be applied in a syste¬ 
matic manner, like that which he had adopted in the 
house referred to; and should be kept up a3 long as. 
there was any renewal of the disease. 
|)arliatt«ntar» ant fa to fnrmteg?. 
Death from ax Overdose of Morphia. 
On Saturday, January 4th, Mr. Coroner Maynard held 
an inquest at the Sunderland Infirmary, on the body of' 
James Sharer, aged fifty-seven, who died on the previous 
day from an overdose of morphia, which he had been in 
