m. ledoyen's disinfecting fluid. 
269 
ART. LXXIT. — ON THE ANTI-SEPTIC AND DISINFECTING 
POWERS OF CHLORIDE OF ZINC AND NITRATE OF LEAD. 
The English journals have been busy of late in discussing 
the relative and absolute merits of chloride of zinc and nitrate 
of lead, as anti-septic and disinfecting agents. It appears 
that in the year 1840, Sir William Burnett, Director Gene- 
ral of the Medical Department of the British Navy, took 
out a patent for preserving animal and vegetable substances 
by means of chloride of zinc, and its application was directed 
entirely to the prevention and suspension of decay. Since 
then the patentee has brought his liquid before the public 
as a disinfectant applicable to destroy deleterious and offen- 
sive effluvia, such as those of a contagious character in fever 
hospitals, etc. 
More recently, a preparation called " Ledoyen's disinfect- 
ing fluid," has been brought into notice, which is represented 
to "possess the property of destroying the offensive effluvia 
of cesspools, drains, sick rooms, &c, and preventing the 
spread of contagious diseases." It was the design of M. 
Ledoyen to submit the merits of his " fluid" to a committee 
of Parliament that if substantiated he might receive a re- 
ward from government, for divulging the composition of his 
preparation. He refused, meanwhile, to place the disinfec- 
tant in the hands of any party who did not obligate himself 
not to examine it; but the editor of the Pharmaceutical Jour- 
nal having obtained posesssion of a specimen, without this 
condition, he states it to be a solution of nitrate of lead, which 
has since been acknowledged by the parties. 
The anti-septic power of chloride of zinc, has been too 
fully established in the dissecting rooms of this city to need 
comment — but in reference to the more important power of 
a disinfectant that has been attributed to it, there is much 
doubt. The disinfecting action of both the substances is 
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