130 
CHLORINE AS A DISINFECTANT. 
it may, like the pollen of flowers, remain mechanically sus- 
pended in the air. What then is the action which chlorine 
exerts over this subtle agent ? 
We are familiar with the effects of chlorine upon such 
compounds as phosphuretted, sulphuretted, and carburetted 
hydrogen, the chlorine from its superior affinity uniting 
with the hydrogen, and leaving the other combustibles to 
be either oxidized or precipitated in a simple state. 
But tliese gases, though noxious, are not infectious, and 
as the evils in nature are to a greater or less degree self- 
mitigating, it is doubtful whether even these noxious gases, 
in the absence of better means, do not occasionally perform 
a service, not merely by warning us of the presence of more 
dangerous matter, but by spreading a gaseous mask over 
its influence. Surrounded by the products of fermentation 
of their own excretions, it is said that the inferior animals 
thrive amazingly, as is observable with pigs, and is in- 
stanced by the manner of feeding oxen, called ''pitting" 
them. The odours of a cow-shed are also said to be deci- 
dedly beneficial to the human subject in a variety of cases. 
I am not desirous, however, by any means, of advocating 
a conservatism of the impure gases, but merely wish to 
remark, that to deodourize the air, is not necessarily the 
same thing as to disinfect it. 
Chlorine can enter into union with a vast many organic 
bodies, modifying or completely changing their character; 
e. g. by substitution of the radical hydrogen of alcohol, or 
rather aldehyde, as in chloral, or when it stands in the stead 
of oxygen, as in the comparison of, anhydrous formic acid, 
Ca H O3, and chloroform, Co H Cis. And Mulder mentions 
a combination of chlorine with such a higli compound as 
proteine, which it precipitates from its solution in the form 
of white flocculent, nearly insoluble particles, to which the 
name chloroproteic acid is given. But does chlorine enter 
into chemical union with those virulent substances it is said 
to have the power of disinfecting ? 
