LUNG PLAGUE liV MEDIATE CONTAGION. 
29 
mouths. The free chlorine penetrates everywhere, into every crack 
and interstice, into every spongy body, and destroys every living 
germ. Nor is this a mere transient action. It continues to give 
off free chlorine for days and weeks, and this proves in every 
sense a thorough disinfectant. 
This explains the result in the Slmfeldt distillery stables. 
Not only the whitewashed portion but the single rows of stalls 
adjoining were thoroughly disinfected, having been enclosed 
under the same low roof, bounded by a close partition and subject¬ 
ed for weeks to chlorine emanations from the extensive interior 
wall and floor. It was, I repeat, a triumph of disinfection. 
I regret that I cannot furnish many other experiments in the 
same direction from Chicago, for after, my arrival every emptied 
stable was thoroughly disinfected and we never had a recurrence 
of lung plague in a disinfected stable. 
One case, however, may be cited. In May we found a case 
* of fatal lung plague in the hands of Timothy Flynn, who kept 
but one cow in a secluded locality, apart from other cows, between 
the river and the canal. On turning over the old records, I found 
that Timothy had lost the predecessor of this cow out of the same 
stable in March, and that the second cow had been obtained from 
the stock-yards some time later, and that the stable had never been 
disinfected. The stock-yards authorities were under a promise; 
which in my time they faithfully lived up to, to allow no cattle to 
enter the yards except such as came by rail and from outside 
Cook county. There is therefore every presumption that Flynn’s 
cow contracted the disease from the stable, as have many others 
in my experience. See my u Lung Plague .” 
I repeat what I said at the outset, that Dr. Gadsden does not 
believe that actual contact with the living diseased animal is 
necessary to infection. He allows that infection takes place 
through the expired air, and that this infection can operate at 
some little distance. He allows that the encysted sequestra, cut 
off from all vital connection with the living diseased animal , re¬ 
main for a variable time infecting. I believe he will even allow 
that the swill flowing along the troughs in the distillery stables 
can convey the infection to the further end of the row. He is 
with us therefore in believing in mediate contagion. 
