178      Disinfectants,  Antiseptics  and  Deodorizers.  { AaA$?^i,*  Sri" 
terchanged.  Inasmuch  as  each  of  them  indicates  a  different  action' 
and  applies  to  a  special  class  of  substances,  it  may  further  scientific- 
accuracy  to  define  the  peculiar  signification  of  these  words  with 
greater  precision. 
A  deodorizer,  deodorant  or  antibromic  is  evidently  a  body  which 
has  the  property  of  destroying  offensive  odors,  whether  it  be  by  chem- 
ical action  or  by  merely  absorbing  fetid  gases. 
An  antiseptic  is  a  body  which  prevents  or  checks  putrefaction. 
The  word  disinfectant,  the  most  popular  term  of  the  three,  applies 
literally  only  to  those  agents  which  are  capable  of  neutralizing  mor- 
bific effluvia.  Dr.  Henry  Hartshorne  tersely  defines  that  substance 
to  be  a  disinfectant,  which  destroys  either  a  noxious  material  itself,, 
or  the  pabulum  upon  which  it  subsists.  As  it  is,  however,  still  an 
open  question,  whether  we  possess  any  chemicals  which  have  the 
power  of  destroying  disease  germs,  at  least  in  that  state  of  dilution 
in  which  it  is  practicable  to  employ  them,  the  term  disinfectant  is 
frequently  used  in  a  somewhat  more  liberal  sense.  Thus,  Dunglison 
includes  under  it  also  antiseptics,  or  agents  that  are  capable  of  re- 
moving any  incipient  or  fully  formed  septic  condition  of  the  living 
body.  We  regret  to  observe  that  even  in  the  revised  and  recently 
published  edition  of  this  standard  work,  no  alteration  has  been  made 
in  this  definition,  which  we  conceive  to  embrace  entirely  too  much 
latitude  of  meaning. 
Dr.  Squibb  has  proposed  the  new  word  azymotic,  contracted  from 
the  French  antizymotique,  in  order  to  express  the  peculiar  effect  of 
carbolic  and  cresylic  acids  on  those  low  organic  forms,  whose  life  is 
intimately  connected  with  fermentation.  The  difference  in  meaning 
between  azymotic  and  antiseptic  is  clearly  shown  by  their  etymology 
— the  one  expressing  the  absence  of  fermentation,  the  other  the  pre- 
vention of  putrefaction.  The  new  term  seems  to  be  a  fortunate  one, 
although  it  would  have  been  better  not  to  have  altered  the  prefix  of 
the  French  word,  since  in  its  present  form  it  indicates  only  negation,, 
while  anti  distinctly  defines  opposition.  We  may  note,  in  passing,, 
that  the  flexibility  and  abundant  resources  of  the  German  language 
have  been  amply  sufficient  to  express  the  precise  meaning  of  antizy- 
motic  by  the  term  galirungswidrig,  without  the  necessity  of  borrowing 
from  a  foreign  idiom. 
Charcoal  and  dry  earth  may  be  given  as  examples  of  simple  deo- 
dorizers ;  they  are  disinfectants  only  in  so  far  that  they  prevent  the 
