THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXV. 
No.415. 
JULY, 1862 . 
Fourth Series. 
No. 91. 
Communications and Cases. 
CARBOLIC ACID AS A DISINFECTANT, 
DEODORISER, AND THERAPEUTIC AGENT. 
The use of the above acid, containing C 12 II 5 O, HO 
(Fownes), was first advocated by Mr. M 4 Dougall, and ad¬ 
verted to bv us now some little time since in an article on disin- 
•> 
fectants and deodorisers.* Lately it has been most suc¬ 
cessfully employed for these purposes on the sewage water of 
Exeter, at the Devon County Lunatic Asylum, and in the 
horse-boxes and fish-vans on the South Devon Railway. 
Mr. Ellis, in his report to the commissioners, says : 
“ The treatment of the sewage must necessarily be taken under two 
heads—first, its disinfection, so as to render it free from smell and pre¬ 
vent it causing any nuisance ; secondly, to utilise it, in order to make 
it remunerative to the board. The average quantity of carbolic acid 
used per day, since its commencement, has been about one gallon, at a 
cost of 1 Id., diluted with lime-water in the proportion of about 1 in 250, 
and applied to the sewage about ten hours per day, Sundays excepted. 
The result, I have no hesitation in saying, has been most satisfactory. 
. . . . The action of the disinfectant on the sewage is not. as many 
suppose it to be, of a temporary character, viz., to abate and destroy 
smells for a time only, but on the contrary, the carbolic acid possesses 
considerable power to disinfect, though staying, or, rather, preventing 
decomposition, which prevents the sewage becoming putrescent and 
giving off offensive emanations, or again reverting to its former state ; 
and when the sewage is once disinfected at the depot, or in any part of 
the sewer, it matters little how long it takes passing off; decomposition 
caunot again set in, nor can any noxious gases be afterwards evolved in 
the atmosphere. Through the application of the disinfectant upon the 
sewage being previous to the commencement of decomposition, ammonia 
is not formed, but becomes locked up and preserved in the sewage, both 
in the liquid andsolid state, which necessarily enhances its value very much 
in an agricultural point of view. This is of the utmost importance, as 
XXXV. 
* ‘Veterinarian,’ vol. xxxi, p. fil. 
25 
