OF LIME AND SODA. 
335 
smell, and it adheres to them for a long time. If they are hung 
in a closet in which there is an open vessel containing a solution 
of one of the chlorides, the stench will soon be overcome. 
He then speaks of the disinfecting properties of the chlorides in 
the wards of hospitals and sick rooms. The old method of fu¬ 
migation with sulphuric acid and nitre, although powerful, was 
unpleasant to the invalid, and it could not be attempted in some 
diseases of the chest. The chlorides destroy contagion without 
suffocating the patient. 
Mr. Alcock next treats of what much concerns us—the use of 
the chlorides in disinfecting and purifying stables. We believe 
that the power of contagion is somewhat under-rated by medical 
writers and by horsemen. It is true that a horse may stand in the 
next stall to a giandered or farcied one for many weeks or months 
without becoming infected, if the division be sufficiently high to 
prevent actual contact, and if the virus be not received on a mucous 
or abraded surface; but many can testify the danger of putting a 
sound horse where a farcied, or giandered, or mangy one had 
stood even many w^eeks before. Indeed, when the last disease gets 
into a stable, it is very difficult to get rid of the infection. 
Repeated scourings and white-washings have failed. The epide¬ 
mic catarrh seems, at times, to assume a contagious form; and of 
this we are perfectly assured, that in heated and ill-ventilated 
stables, and especially where cleanliness is neglected, an animal 
poison is produced, contaminating the air, mingling with the 
food, and impregnating the very walls of the place, and becoming 
the fruitful source of the worst diseases. 
In the malignant epidemic of cattle, we know how soon the 
stable or the cow-house becomes highly infectious. A species of 
leprous mange having once found its way into a kennel, is con¬ 
quered by little less than the demolition of the building. Re¬ 
peated scourings and white-washings will not disinfect the crib or 
kennel in which a dog has died with putrid distemper. 
If one pint of the concentrated solution of either of the chlorides 
be mixed with three gallons of water, and the walls, and manger, 
and rack be brushed over with it, and this again be washed off 
with pure water, the stable will be completely disinfected. If a 
disease appears which we suspect to be contagious, and the stable 
be frequently and freely watered with this diluted solution, the 
danger to horses in the other stalls will be materially lessened or 
altogether removed. When mangy horses and dogs are dis¬ 
missed as cured, a washing with the diluted chloride will remove 
any infection that might lurk about them, or which they might 
carry from the place in which they have been confined. All 
horse furniture, after undergoing a scouring of soap and water, 
