262 
NOTE  ON  CARBOLIC  ACID,  ETC. 
As  these  things  grow  into  common  use,  and  through  science 
are  applied  to  the  necessities  of  mankind,  they  become  objects 
of  mercantile  interest,  and  when  taken  up  as  sources  of  gain 
or  profit,  they  are  apt  to  be  studied  and  applied  with  a  bias 
directed  by  the  pecuniary  interest  of  the  manufacturer.  To  the 
foresight  and  mercantile  enterprise  of  Messrs.  F.  C.  Calvert  & 
Co.,  of  Manchester,  England,  the  world  owes  mainly  the  practi- 
cal application  of  the  scientific  knowledge  and  research  of  Runge, 
Laurent,  Williamson  and  others,  in  regard  to  this  subject,  and  it 
became  the  interest  of  this  firm  to  push  forward  those  grades 
and  forms  of  the  substance  which  would  best  repay  their  praise- 
worthy labor,  and  large  outlay.  These  grades  were  those  which 
required  most  skill  in  their  production,  and  in  which  they  were 
least  liable  to  an  early  competition.  Phenol,  or  crystallized 
carbolic  acid,  being  the  most  abundant  and  the  most  stable  of 
the  compounds  which  make  up  coal  tar  creasote,  and,  by  dex- 
terous and  skilful  management,  susceptible  of  separation  and 
purification  into  the  condition  of  a  beautiful  white  crystalline  "car- 
bolic acid,"  became  their  chief  object,  so  that  upon  this  all  their 
statements  were  based,  and  toward  it  all  their  efforts  tended, 
whilst  with  it  all  the  early  experiments  were  made,  and  upon  it 
the  trials  in  practice  were  based.  The  cresol,  or  cresylic  acid,  for 
some  time  was  supposed  to  have  little  or  no  antiseptic  or  azymotic 
effect.  As  the  field  of  labor  and  application  enlarged,  however, 
and  particularly  when  the  substance  came  to  be  applied  upon  so 
grand  a  scale  as  that  of  attempting  to  control  the  cattle  plague 
throughout  northern  Europe,  under  the  direction  of  such  men 
as  Mr.  William  Crookes  and  Dr.  Angus  Smith,  of  London,  it 
expanded  somewhat  beyond  the  mercantile  influences,  and  the 
cresol  was  shown  to  be  equal  with,  if  not  superior,  to  the  Phenol 
in  azymotic  effect.  Taking  this  hint  from  the  valuable  paper 
of  Mr.  Crookes  three  years  or  more  ago,  the  writer  made 
some  experiments  upon  fungi,  which,  though  scarcely  def- 
inite enough  to  deserve  the  name  of  experiments,  convinced  his 
judgment  that  the  somewhat  incongruous  mixture  of  coal  tar 
products,  which,  when  properly  separated  from  oils  and  pitch, 
commenced  to  boil  at  about  180°  C,  and  distilled  over  below 
235°  C,  though  still  containing  water  and  impurities,  was  more 
