1695. Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid

1695.    Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid. A solution of chloride of zinc, made by dissolving zinc in commercial muriatic acid to saturation, and known as Sir William Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid, has been found most useful as a purifying agent, and in removing and destroying contagion. In purifying sick rooms or crowded places the solution should be moistened by means of a piece of flannel cloth, about 3 or 4 feet square, attached to a long rod and waved through the air for 10 minutes at a time; in addition to which the floor should be mopped or sprinkled over with the same dilute solution, if necessary, several times a day, and a small quantity put into the close-stools and bed-pans. The water-closets should also be cleansed with it, and 2 gallons occasionally thrown down each. When floors and woodwork are washed with the solution, the use of soap or soda should be avoided immediately before or after its application; and whitewashing should not be applied to any part recently washed or sprinkled with it.

1696. To Purify a Sick Chamber

1696.     To Purify a Sick Chamber. The nitrous acid vapor, so invaluable as a disinfectant in contagious fevers, is obtained by decomposing nitre by means of heated sulphuric acid, in the following manner: Put 1/2 ounce sulphuric acid in a crucible glass or china cup and warm it over a lamp or in heated sand, adding to it from time to time a little nitre. Several of these vessels must be placed in the sick chamber and in the neighboring apart- ments and passages, at a distance of 20 feet or more from each other, according to the height of the ceiling and the virulence of the contagion. As an evidence of the value of this method of disinfection it may he mentioned that Dr. Carmichael Smyth, of London, by whom it was originally practiced, received from Parliament a premium of £5,000 for his discovery.

1697. Hyponitrous Acid as a Disinfectant

1697.    Hyponitrous Acid as a Disinfectant. A special commission was appointed by the Academy of Sciences at Paris, to study the different means of disinfecting those localities which, during the siege, had been appropriated to persons afflicted with contagious diseases. Its report furnishes some useful guides to the selection and the application of disinfectants. It was agreed that the very first place among destructive agents which can attack and destroy infectious germs, should be assigned to hyponitrous acid. Great precaution should be exercised, however, by those employing the very dangerous nitrous vapors.

1698. Carbolic Acid as a Disinfectant

1698.    Carbolic Acid as a Disinfectant. The French commission (see No. 1697 (Hyponitrous Acid as a Disinfectant)) also reported that carbolic acid is much more easily applied, is less dangerous and expensive than hyponitrous acid, and seems to offer guarantees of quite equal efficacy, founded on experimental evidence. It is best employed by mixing with sand or sawdust in the proportion of 1 part by weight of acid, and 3 parts of the inert material. The mixture is placed in earthen pots. Carbolic acid, diluted with 25 to 30 times its weight of water, has been found useful in sprinkling daily the floors and the bedding of sick chambers. It has been stated by M. Devergie, that water containing only the 1/4000 part of its weight of carbolic acid sufficed for the disinfection of a dead-house during the hottest weather, when it contained from 6 to 7 bodies.