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Antiseptics and Disinfectants (Bodies which prevent or retard)

Antiseptics are bodies which prevent or retard decay; disinfectants those which are supposed similarly to retard or prevent the spread of disease, whether epidemic or contagious. The latter term, however, is popularly applied to deodorizers or bodies which remove the offensive smell accompanying decaying organic matter. Antiseptics.

Salt, spices and sugar are too well known to require comment. Professor Morgan's method of salting meat is to inject the brine into the aorta, or main artery; this process is highly recommended on the score of simplicity and economy. lutions. The latter does not shrink or alter the Alcohol and glycerine are used as preservative SOglycerine are used as preservative socolor of animal or vegetable substances preserved in it.

Goadby's Solutions. 1. (For ordinary use in preserving specimens.) Alum, 1 oz.; bay salt, 2 oz.; corrosive sublimate, 1 gr.; water, 1 pt. In very tender tissues, or where there is a tendency to mouldiness, use 2 grs. of corrosive sublimate. 2. (For objects containing carbonate of lime.) Bay salt, 4 lb.; corrosive sublimate, 1 gr.; water, 1 pt. 3. (For old preparations.) Bay salt, 1 lb.; arsenious acid (white arsenic), 10 grs.; water, 1 pt. Dissolve by the aid of heat. When there is a tendency to softening, add 1 gr. of corrosive sublimate. Reboulet's Solution.

Nitre, 1 part; alum, 2 parts; chloride of lime, 4 parts; water, 16 or 20 parts; to be diluted as may be necessary. For pathological specimens.

Stapleton's Solution.

Alum, 24 oz.; nitre, 1 dr.; water, 1 qt.

Burnett's Solution Is made by adding scrap zinc to muriatic acid so long as any gas (hydrogen) is evolved. If it be required neutral, add carbonate of soda until a slight precipitate is seen. It is largely used in the preservation of timber, and in embalming, being in the latter case injected into the aorta.

Kyan's Solution Is a strong solution of corrosive sublimate in water; used for the same purposes as Burnett's, but now generally superseded by the latter.

Coal Tar Is used to preserve wood; it is boiled and applied as a paint, or forced into the pores of the wood under pressure.

Disinfectants.

The only true method to prevent the spread of contagious or epidemic diseases is thorough cleanliness. Abundance of air to dilate the poison, and the removal of organic effete Arter ky liberal us of water or soap and water, are effectual. Lime | der contains 5 to 8 per cent. each of lime and of acts by destroying organic matter and absorbing carbolic acid, and 70 to 80 per cent. of fuller's earth. certain offensive gases. Hence the use of whitewashing. Sulphurous acid checks organic change or fermentation. A high temperature, say 240° Fahr., is useful in disinfecting clothes, letters, etc. Condy's Solution acts by destroying organic matter; solutions of chloride of zinc, corrosive sublimate, persulphate or perchloride of iron act by coagulating certain organic matters and preventing further decay; they also absorb sulphuretted hydrogen. Chloride of lime (bleaching salt), chlorine, nitrate of lead, and copperas are merely deodorizers. Pastils (see PERFUMERY), burned sugar, vinegar, and burning tar, merely disguise offensive odors. Condy's Solution.

A saturated solution of permanganate of potassa is one of the most efficient and elegant of all disinfectants. A teaspoonful in a soup-plate of water, exposed in a room, quickly removes any offensive smell; when the pink color disappears more must be added. It has been used to remove the smell of bilge-water and guano from ships.

It speedily cleanses foul water and makes it drinkable. A teaspoonful to a hogshead is generally enough, but more may be added, until the water retains a slight pinkish tint. This will disappear, by putting a stick into the water for a few minutes. Ledoyen's Solution.

Litharge, 13 oz.; nitric acid, s. g. 1.38, 12 oz., previously diluted with water, 6 pts. It contains nitrate of lead, and is merely a deodorizer.

Chlorine.

Free chlorine is seldom used, on acount of its ffensive and suffocating qualities.

Chloride of lime contains hypochlorite of lime and chloride of calcium and lime. It is made into a paste with water; acids cause it to evolve chlorine. Eau de Javelle is made by adding to chloride of lime 1 part, water 15 parts, and agitate at intervals for an hour; then dissolve 2 oz. carbonate of potassa in pint water. Mix the solutions, and when the mixture has settled pour off the clear part. Or, by passing a stream of chlorine through a solution of carbonate of potassa to saturation.

It contains hypochlorite of potassa and chloride of potassium.

Labarraque's Solution.

Pass chlorine through a solution of carbonate of soda (1 lb. in water 1 qt.) to saturation or, to a mixture of chloride of lime lb., and water 3 pints, add 7 oz. crystallized carbonate of soda, in 1 pt. of water. Proceed in all respects as for Eau de Javelle. These solutions will remove fruitstains from linen. Iron Compounds.

Perchloride of Iron is made by dissolving iron in muriatic acid, and while boiling add nitric acid as long as red fumes are evolved. It is a powerful styptic. Monsel's Solution, subsulphate of iron, is made by dissolving copperas 12 oz. (troy), in water 12 oz., adding sulphuric acid 510 grs., and then while boiling adding nitric acid as long as red fumes come off. It is much used as a styptic and astringent, and is a cheap and powerful deodorizer. Copperas mixed with its weight of lime is a cheap and popular agent in deodorizing sinks.

Carbolic Acid, Or coal-tar creosote, coagulates organic matter; is a powerful antiseptic and deodorizer. It is used mixed with lime. Ridgewood's disinfecting pow- Charcoal Is a useful deodorizer and purifier; it acts by its attraction for organic matter and gases. By condensing the latter as well as the oxygen of the air in its pores it causes rapid combination. Small animals buried in charcoal are rapidly converted into skeletons, while no offensive smell is noticed even in warm weather. Water is best kept in charred casks; foul water is purified by filtration through charcoal. Meat lightly tainted is restored by wrapping in powdered charcoal; animal charcoal is the best. Lampblack is nearly worthless for these purposes. Animal charcoal is an antidote to all animal and vegetable poisons; it rapidly removes organic coloring matters and also vegetable bitters from solution. Picric acid is not thus removed, and may in this way be detected when used instead of hops in brewing. Noxious Vapors.

To prevent the effects of noxious vapors from wells, cellars, fermenting liquors, etc., procure a free circulation of air, either by ventilators, or opening the doors or windows where it is confined, or by keeping fires in the infected place; or throwing in lime, recently burnt or powdered. Old wells, vaults, and sewers, which have been long shut up from the air, are generally occupied by vapors which soon prove fatal to persons breathing them. The property which these vapors have of extinguishing flame, affords the means of detecting their presence, and thereby avoiding the danger of an incautious exposure to them. When such places, therefore, are opened to be cleaned out or repaired, a lighted candle should be let down slowly by means of a cord, before any person is suffered to descend; and if it burns freely until it gets to the surface of the water, or other matter covering the bottom, the workmen may then venture down with safety.

But, if without any accident, the candle is extinguished, and continues to be so on repeated trials, then the air of the place is highly noxious.

Parchment Paper Is made by immersing unsized paper for a few seconds into a mixture (cold) of 2 parts, by measure, of commercial sulphuric acid, and 1 part of water; then washing in water, and afterwards in dilute solution of ammonia. It is water-proof, about 6 times as strong as paper, and may be used in all cases as a substitute for parchment, which it resembles. The same effect is produced by soaking paper in a solution of neutral chloride of zinc, s. g. 2100. It is then treated as before. This paper is used in Mr. Graham's process for dialysis.

New Mode of Preparing Paper for the Use of Draughtsmen, etc.

Reduce to a powder, and dissolve quickly in a glazed earthen vessel, containing cold water, some gum tragacanth, having been well worked with a wooden spatula, to free it from lumps. There must be a sufficient quantity of water, to give to this diluted gum the consistence of a jelly. Paper, and some sorts of stuffs, upon which, if this composition be smoothly applied, with a pencil or a brush, and dried before a gentle fire, will receive either water or oil colors; in using water colors, they must be mixed with a solution of the above gum. This cloth or paper, so prepared, will take any color except ink. When it is intended to retouch any particular part of the drawing, it should be washed with a sponge, or clean linen, or a pencil (containing some of the above-men-