The Concordia eagle. [volume] (Vidalia, La.) 1873-1890, 1885-01-31
HOW TO USE DIslNFEcTANTs.
DIR. Dorcmus Eyp,ains the Suhlcct-Illns-
trating How Contagion May Spread
Value of Chlorine.

oval, long and scrpcntinc were grouped
on table in the lecture room Of the
Long Island Hospital Medical College
in Brooklyn last evening. Prof. r. Or
pen Dorcmus delivered a lecture to the
alumni on "DisinfcclantS."
The doctor demonstrated with chem
zeal experiments many of his state
mcnts. "Alan has hc continued,
"two classes OF mortal enemies which
are eyer ready TO assail him with de-
structon. One is invisible and is known
as ghosts or gases; the other consists OF
microscopic organisms known under
such names rs those to which PaFi"u:
and Koch and other celebrated special
isis have given 50 much time and
thought. These organisms, rs revealed
by the microscope, possess All the forms
and habits of the most savage beasts,
and they are not less fierce and deadly
in the aggrcgat'. Both Glasses are to I've
fought ana suhdued only by the aid of
chemistry The lecturer first referred
TO som" If the ways in which the air i
polluted in large ccntcrs Of population.
Sewers throw of dcathly gases, wall pa
pcrs exhalc arsenic, and human beings
themselves are throwing forth all the
time poisonous influence: the horses
which number 30, coo in Brooklyn alone,
contribute 10 this. Every %as-lj@ht CON
Sumes as much oxygen rs eight per-
sons, and gas will continue TO be a
source of ill-hcalth until electricity ha,
suppantcd it. The greatest danger to
health is when the sources Of disease col
loct gradually and secretly, rs in the
sick room where the complaint i con-
tagiouS.
It is not generally recognized that
these gases will penetrate solid BRICK
or stone wall merely by the force Of CT
pillary attraction. DIR. DurcmuS cNhib-
tied block of ordinary brown stone
and one of brick eight inches th:ch,
through which he showed it was posi-
be to blow draught of air from the
mouth sufficiently strong to eNtinguish
Il candle. All other stone, he said, was
more or less porous. He placed an
empty jar beneath a glass glob, filed
with hydrogen gas, and the gas, pcnc-
trating the pores of the jar, drove out
the air through glass tube, and was
seen TO ascend in bubbles through the
water in which the tube was inserted.
The hydrogen gas, he explained, simply
followed a natural law in disp!acing the
air. The jar through which il pcnc-
tratcd is not so porous as the walls of
or houses. All the cmanations from
our bodics-cXccpting carbonic acid
gas and nitrogcn-are compounds Of
hydrogen, and these by the same natural
law make their way. carrying with them
often deadly impurities into the most
solid stone walls.
In this manner contagious diseases
have been conveyed from the impure
closets of one building through the
walls into adjoining houses. In such
instances or when a house becomes inn
pregnated with disease, mere yentila-
lion viii effect no remedy; scraPing and
rcplastering the walls are equally flu
tile. lie related that both means had
been tried without success in an old ward
in the New York Hospital used for pa
tients suffering from ship fever. \
room in a prominent hotel in New York
became infected with scarlet fever from
one or two patients, and the fever con
tinued to assert itself Notwithstanding
all efforts TO eradicate it. The old He
brews understood the futiiity of tam
pcring with contagious diseases, ANA il
Is related in Leyiticus that the buildings
in which such patients were sick We're
aftcrWarl destroyed. The same meth
cd has been advised by many eminent
scientists.
DR.. Doremus then showed an expert
I mrnt bv which chlorine gas is used As a
] n. IN 50
quantities chlorine, he said, is an effect
ual destroyer of these contagious gases.
Chlorine unites with the hydrogen
forming hydro-chloric acid. In 1874
great many deaths had occurred in
Bellevue Hospital from pynmia. 1t was
feared that the building would have TO
be destroyed. The surgical wards were
treated with chlorine, and every trace
OF the difficulty was removed. lis
method was to generate the gas in
great lcadcn tanks, one room ut a time.
The whole operation required several
weeks and three or four tons OF this gas
was generated. The result was that
the wards were freed Of any faint OF the
old odor.
Under the direction of Mayor Gun
Their. DR. DorcmuS, with the cu-opera-
ton of DIR. Lewis Sayrc and DIR. Swim
burn, Port Physician, employed the
same treatment to disintect vessels
from Europe. The cholera was then
raging there, but not a case appeared
in New York. THE patent element. y
continued the doctor. "when associated
= with certain metals, is possessed Of
prcspryatiyc and antiscptic powers.
United with sodium it forms our com.
mon salt, and the salt preserves the
sea rs the saints uphold the each.
Combined with mercury it forms inSoi-
uble calomcl and soluble corrosive sob
2 Innate, the later most yirHlent poison
, To men. animals and invisible animal
= cul.e. My own observations on hi,
subject have been confirmed by the
: greater labors III Pasicr. Koch. Wolf
lungcl and Sternburg, Surgeon Mrjor