Destruction of Disease Germs.
Too MUCH stress is laid upon the scientific definition of the term "disinfection." Its use should be limited to the destruction of specific infectious material which causes specific infectious contagious disease; for example, Asiatic cholera, small-pox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc. It has been proved for several kinds of infectious material that its specific infecting power is due to the presence of living micro-organisms, known in a general way as "disease germs;" and practical sanitation is now based upon the belief that the infecting agents in all kinds of infectious material are of this nature. "Disinfection," therefore, consists essentially in the destruction of disease germs. "There can be no partial disinfection of such material; either its infecting power is destroyed or it is not. In the latter case there is a failure to disinfect. Nor can there be any disinfection in the absence of infectious material." For practical purposes this distinction is entirely unnecessary. The best disinfectants are "deodorizers" as well; they will prevent or arrest putrefactive decomposition, therefore they are also "antiseptics." A large number of the proprietary "disinfectants," so called, which are in the market, are simply deodorizers, or antiseptics, of greater or less value, but are entirely untrustworthy for disinfecting purposes. Premising that neither deodorizers, antiseptics, nor disinfectants can be relied upon as substitutes for cleanliness, the following is recommended as an efficient and cheap disinfectant: Dissolve chloride of lime of the best quality in soft water, in the proportion of four ounces to the gallon. As the value of this solution depends upon the amount of chloride it contains, it is essential that the chloride of lime be fresh. Such lime may be bought by the quantity for five cents per pound; the cost of the solution is therefore less than two cents a gallon. It is available for free and general use in privy-vaults, sewers, sink-drains, refuse heaps, stables, and wherever else the odor of the disinfectant is not objectionable. A quart or more a day may be used in an offensive vault, and such quantities as may be necessary in other places. It may be used in a sprinkler in stables and elsewhere. In the sick-room it may be used in vessels, cuspidors, etc. Use one pint of this solution for the disinfection of each discharge in cholera, typhoid fever, etc. Mix well, and leave in vessel for at least ten minutes before throwing into privy-vault or water-closet. The same directions apply for the disinfection of vomited matters. Infected sputum should be discharged directly into a cup half full of the solution. The surface of the body of a sick person or of his attendants, when soiled with infectious discharges, should be at once cleansed with a suitable disinfecting agent. In diseases like small-pox and scarlet fever, in which the infectious agent is given off from the entire surface of the body, occasional ablutions with Labarraque's solution (liquid soda chlorinatæ), diluted with twenty parts of water, will be more suitable than the stronger solution above recommended. In all infectious diseases the surface of the body of the dead should be thoroughly washed with one of the solutions above recommended, and then enveloped in a sheet saturated with the same.—Sel.