202 
ON DISINFECTANTS. 
blood-poison far exceeding in virulence that which induces 
influenza. In the first place, the sum total of the mortality 
among the affected horses was great, and the symptoms in 
the graver cases were altogether of a much more formidable 
character than are encountered in influenza affecting our 
race. Dr. Fricke mentions that few horses escaped being 
attacked, and that out of 30,000 horses in Philadelphia, ac¬ 
cording to the official reports, over 2230 died in less than 
three weeks. The breathing in the horse in bad cases as¬ 
sumes a spasmodic character, and the distressed animal 
refuses to lie down almost to the last moment of life, and 
finally dies from exhaustion. Sometimes, about the middle 
or end of the third week, if the case progresses unfavourably, 
oedematous swellings make their appearance, the hair of the 
mane and tail falls out, the lining membrane of the nostrils 
becomes deep purple, and the animals become very feeble, 
with little hope of recovery. The disease exhibits well-marked 
anatomical characters in the mucous membrane of the nares, 
pharynx, glottis, larynx, and trachea, either by great conges¬ 
tion and injection of the vessels of the membranes lining 
these parts, which become covered with mucus or pus, or by 
the production of patches of false membrane. Dr. Fricke 
concludes, from these and other observations, that the disease 
is closely allied to the epidemics of diphtheria in the human 
family. The acute anaemia so generally observed is, he 
thinks, another evidence of its diphtheroid character.— The 
Lancet. 
ON DISINFECTANTS. 
Dr. Bakewell. 
(An Extract from a Lecture on “ Small-pox.”) 
As regards disinfection, I can only say that while I think 
the use of the ordinary disinfectants good as deodorisers, I 
have no faith whatever in their protective power. After the 
examination I have made of the dust of small-pox wards, it 
which quantities of minute scabs were always found, I cannot 
believe that any atmosphere that can be breathed by a human 
being can destroy the small-pox germ. I do not dispute that 
it may be destroyed by sulphurous acid, though I should be 
sorry to trust to that without heat or moisture as well; but I 
feel certain that it cannot be destroyed by any quantity of it 
in which we could breathe. The same may be said of the 
other disinfectants, In fact, I believe the best use of disim 
