NOTE  ON  CARBOLIC  ACID,  ETC. 
359 
at  ordinary  temperatures,  cork  the  opening,  and  again  turn  it 
down  and  agitate  it  well.  It  is  then  ready  to  be  placed  upon 
its  stand,  and  after  standing  a  few  hours  is  ready  for  use,  at  a 
cost  of  not  more  than  20c.  per  gallon.  In  times  of  epidemic 
diseases,  or  any  large  and  frequent  demand,  this  plan  is  recom- 
mended to  pharmacists,  who  might  sell  the  solution  by  the  pint 
or- gallon,  at  say  6c.  per  pint,  or  40c.  per  gallon. 
The  uses  and  applications  of  this  solution  are  so  numerous 
that  it  is  impossible  to  allude  here  to  more  than  a  few  of  the 
prominent  ones.  When  it  is  remembered  that  this  substance  in 
very  small  quantities  (how  small  no  one  yet  knows,)  is  azymotic' 
— that  is,  opposed  to  or  fatal  to  all  the  lower  orders  of  both 
animal  and  vegetable  life  ;  and  is  antiseptic — that  is,  opposed  to 
putrefaction  or  decay,  preserving  even  the  organisms  which  it 
kills.  And  when  it  is  remembered  that  all  contagious,  infectious 
and  epidemic  diseases  are  believed  by  good  authorities,  to  be 
zymotic — that  is,  of  the  character  of  a  fermentation  dependent 
upon  living  organisms  ;  and  that  all  the  processes  of  putrefac- 
tion and  decay  are  zymotic  also — that  is,  dependent  upon  fer- 
mentations of  the  kind  which  are  caused  and  kept  up  through 
the  agency  of  cell-life,  or  organisms  of  low  vitality,  a  good  key 
to  its  powers  and  uses  is  at  once  obtained,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  good  guard  against  its  misapplication  is  established.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  it  is  not  a  disinfectant  at  all,  in  the 
sense  of  deodorizing,  except  in  its  effects  upon  the  causes  which 
produce  some,  odors  ;  and  its  whole  reputation  as  a  deodorizing 
disinfectant  is  unsound  and  fallacious.  Applied  to  the  causes 
and  sources  of  most  of  the  hurtful  odors  which  are  not  purely 
chemical  or  inorganic,  it  at  once  arrests  the  processes  which  give 
rise  to  them,  and  thus  it  cuts  off  the  supply  of  these  emanations. 
But  the  odors  already  formed,  as  such,  are  probably  not  at  all 
influenced  by  it,  except  in  being  masked  and  covered  up  by  its 
own  overwhelming  odor.  All  odors,  to  a  great  extent  at  least, 
follow  the  laws  of  diffusion  of  gases,  and  the  sources  of  supply 
once  cut  off,  these  laws  of  diffusion  so  quickly  dilute  and  disarm 
these  mere  results  or  effects,  that  they  become  practically  insig- 
nificant ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  but  little  moment  as  to  exactly 
how  the  result  is  attained,  or  to  what  agency  the  credit  belongs, 
