DISINFECTING   PROPERTIES  OF  CHARCOAL. 
35T 
My  attention  was  particularly  drawn  to  the  importance  of 
charcoal  as  a  disinfecting  agent  by  my  friend  John  Turnbull, 
Esq.,  of  Glasgow,  the  well-known  extensive  chemical  manufac- 
turer. Mr.  Turnbull,  about  nine  months  ago,  placed  the  bodies 
of  two  dogs  in  a  wooden  box,  on  a  layer  of  charcoal-powder  of  a 
few  inches  in  depth,  and  covered  them  over  with  a  quantity  of 
the  same  material.  Though  the  box  was  quite  open,  and  kept  in 
his  laboratory,  no  effluvium  was  ever  perceptible  ;  and  on  ex- 
amining the  bodies  of  the  animals  at  the  end  of  six  months, 
scarcely  anything  remained  of  them  except  their  bones.  Mr. 
Turnbull  sent  me  a  portion  of  the  charcoal- powder  which  had 
been  most  closely  in  contact  with  the  bodies  of  the  dogs.  I  sub- 
mitted it  for  examination  to  one  of  my  pupils,  Mr.  Turner,  who 
found  it  contained  comparatively  little  ammonia,  not  a  trace  of 
sulphuretted  hydrogen,  but  very  appreciable  quantities  of  nitric 
and  sulphuric  acids,  with  acid  phosphate  of  lime. 
Mr.  Turner  subsequently,  about  three  months  ago,  buried  two 
rats  in  about  2  inches  of  charcoal-powder,  and  a  few  days  after- 
wards the  body  of  a  full-grown  cat  was  similarly  treated.  Though 
the  bodies  of  these  animals  are  now  in  a  highly  putrid  state,  not 
the  slightest  odor  is  perceptible  in  the  laboratory. 
From  this  short  statement  of  facts,  the  utility  of  charcoal- 
powder,  as  a  means  of  preventing  noxious  effluvia  from  church- 
yards and  from  dead  bodies  in  other  situations,  such  as  on  board 
ship,  is  sufficiently  evident.  Covering  a  churchyard  to  the  depth 
of  from  2  to  3  inches  with  coarsely  powdered  charcoal,  would 
effectually  prevent  any  putrid  exhalations  ever  finding  their  way 
into  the  atmosphere.  Charcoal-powder  also  greatly  favors  the 
rapid  decomposition  of  the  dead  bodies  with  which  it  is  in  contact, 
so  that  in  the  course  of  six  or  eight  months  little  is  left  except 
the  bones. 
In  all  the  modern  systems  of  chemistry,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  last  edition  of  Turner's  'Elements,'  charcoal  is  described  as 
possessing  antiseptic  properties,  while  the  very  reverse  is  the 
fact.  Common  salt,  nitre,  corrosive  sublimate,  arsenious  acid, 
alcohol,  camphor,  creosote,  and  most  essential  oils  are  certainly 
antiseptic  substances,  and  therefore  retard  the  decay  of  animal 
and  vegetable  matters.  Charcoal,  on  the  contrary,  as  we  have 
just  seen,  greatly  facilitates  the  oxidization,  and  consequently 
