Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1876 — A Seasonable Word on Disinfectants. [ARTICLE]

A Seasonable Word on Disinfectants.

If household drainage were always what it ought to be, we should have small need of disinfectants, but unfortunately defective drains are the rule and faultless ones the rare exception. In cold weather the former may not in all cases prove seriously mischievous, but with the advent of the dog daya they are almost certain to become dangerous to health. The seeds of disease and death, which may remain dormant in winter, spring up into rank growth and bear their baleful fruit under the fostering heat of summer. If the cause of the evil cannot be immediately removed —and often it cannot be — the next best thing is to neutralize it by means of disinfectants. If the poisonous growth cannot be rooted up, its fatal fruitage may be blasted in the bud. The drain that cannot be rebuilt or repaired until a more favorable seasonable, taay be rendered inoffensive and innocuous by the free use of cheap but potent disinfectants, like carbolic acid and Its compounds. A few dollars invested in these may save hundreds of dollars in doctor’s bills, or inestimable loss in health and life. No household should be without a supply of them in hot weather, for even where the drainage is supposed to be perfect it is well to be prepared for the contingency of some unforeseen defect or disarrangement. Those of our friends who go to the country or seaside for a summer vacation will do well to bear in mind the peculiar perils of such places. Of late years the close of the traveling season has brought its reports of typhoid and other epidemics from not a few of the watering-places and summer resorts, Pestilential drains and poisoned wells have spoiled all the “sweet influences” of pure mountain air or bracing ocean breezes. Forewarned is forearmed, and all who leave home for country or seashore should think of these things at the may save them many painful reflections after their return. Do not go to a place where the drainage and other sanitary arrangements are not unexceptionable; or, if you cannot be sure on that point, see that there is a good supply of disinfectants on the premises, even if you have to furnish it yourself. A few bottles of the saturated solution of carbolic acid will be no costly or heavy addition to your luggage, and they may save the health of a whole household. The epidemics that have prevailed in country boarding houses and hotels might often have been prevented by such forethought on the part of a single inmate. After all the discussion of the comparative merits of disinfecting agents, and the many “powders” and “fluids” that have been patented and advertised, carbolic acid and its compounds, like carbolate of lime, which were among the first to be recognized as really safe, effective, and cheap agents for. the purpose, still retain that, well-earned reputation; or rather they have gained steadily in favor, while many of their vaunted rivals have passed into merited oblivion. When they have failed to give complete satisfaction, it has been because a poor or sophisticated preparation, with more odor than disinfecting power, has been used. A genuine article from a trustworthy manufacturer has never disappointed those who have tested it.—Boston Journal of Chemistry.