Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1886 — Using Disinfectants. [ARTICLE]

Using Disinfectants.

.Every family is obliged to make use of, disinfectants to a greater or less degree. It is therefore important that she housekeeper should know what disinfectants to use, and which to avoid; for many feubstanee&are not really disinfectants, but merely deodorizers, substituting frequently one smell for another. Such, for example, is the burning of coffee and other agents, and generating smoke and odorous agents in a room already impure. Among the best known and most powerful disinfectants must be included bleaching powder (chloride of lime, rich in chlorine,) and charcoal. Carbolic acid is one of the most reliable of all disinfectants, but it must be mixed with other substances, or diluted. The housekeeper should not be by the unpleasant odor of carbolic acid from using it freely.' An unpleasant odor is not necessarily an impure odor; on the contrary, in this case and in. some others, the unpleasant odors are the pure ones, which must be used to destroy the less objectionable and the impure. Dilute pure carbolic acid with 80 or 90 per cent, of warm water, and you have a bearable article. Be very careful in handling carbolic acid. In the,form of a mixture formed Into a powder, however, the danger is minimed; it can in this way be used much more freely. Concerning the practical uses of carbolic acid, a celebrated chemist says : “A considerable saving might be effected by persons who use it largely if tlie mixture were done by themselves instead of by the manufacturers, and the same tins used over again, while the article so made would have many advantages. It could, in the first place, be made as strong as the necessities of any particular occasion might require, and in the next place, the pure acid may be used for yards, stables, fowl-houses, etc. The method of making powder is very simple. About four ounces of the iacid, by weight or measure, should be added,, to one pound of preeipated chalk, -or fine sand, or mould, or any other harmless, substance in a finely sub-divided State, and thoroughly mixed in a largo bowl. This powder will be suitable for all ordinary purposes, and will be far superior to many of the disinfecting powders sold at twice the cost.”

Chlorine gas is a good disinfectant in scarlet fever cases. There is no use jn employing this, however, unless it is thoroughly done. In typhoid cases, chloride and sulphate of zinc and sulphate of copper are excellent substitutes for carbolic acid. Excreta from patients should invariably be disinfected with a diluted form of one of these substances. It is well to boil bedclothes .and beds with the addition of some sulphate or chloride of zinc solutions. The woodwork of a room in which the patient is confined should be cleaned with soap and water mixed with a little carbelie acid. In our last number we spoke of the use of sulphurous acid gas or the vapors from burning lump sulphur, and of the advantage of this disinfectant for fumigation over others. Do not spare the sulphur in eontagimis diseases where rooms have been contaminated, and be careful not to set fire to the clothes. Bedding must sometimes be taken apart before fumigating a room and its contents: - ~

j. It may be interesting to our readers to know why we employ disinfectants. In disease, decomposition takes place; decaying matter is present, full of minute organisms, and a fomenting process is continually going on. The gases produced by this process, by this decomposition, are, so far as we know, without exception, harmful. A good disinfectant either absorbs or destroys the poison of th£se gases. Prevention is the first care “of tlie sanitarian, but then if the poison is present,-destruction must be thought of next. Good sewers, well laid drains, and properly arranged pipes will frequently prevent the need of disinfectants ; but if disease finds its way into the house, it is of the most absolute necessity that we know best how to meet it and its dangers, and prevent its spread to others, as well as to keep it from assuming a virulent form in the affected. —Sanitary Gleaniiigs.