The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-24
WANTS FoRMALDEHYDE TRIED.
Health officer LeHardy's Letters to
the Surgeon General,


the Surgeon General.
Further efforts are being made by
Health Officer LeTIardy to induce Surgeon
General Walter Wyman of the United
States Marine Hospital Service to con-
duct experiments as to the value of for
maldehyde as a disinfectant for the holds
of ships. The experiments will entail
considerable expense but as the iuforma-
ton it Is expected to derive will be of
general benefit to all cities on the south
east and Gulf coasts, DR.. LeHardy be-
lieves the matter should be taken up by
the government
Already there has been considerable CO T.
respondence on the subject between DR..
LeHardy and the surgeon general, his
last letter being one setting out a plan
upon which to do the work.
1T Is very evident by the tenor of your
letters DIR. LeHardy says, that you see
me riding the formaldehyde hobby-horse,
and trying to have you do likewise. Of
this I viii try to dissuade you by placing
before you the plan which I propose to
carry out. The reason I persistently bring
the matter to your attention Is that con-
consider you, with the facilities under
your control, the proper person to carry
out these experiments and bring this work
to a finish in much shorter time than ii
could be done any other way. l can now
state that it can and will eventually be
done. I have assurances to that effect, in
fact 1 can state that experiments in this
line are now progressing.
ITO be brief this is the sketch OF the
plan Ct quote from letter 10 DR.. Souchou.
president Board of Health, state of Louis
lanai: Experience has shown me
how little we know of the eX-
act value, and proper management
of the materials used for the disnfection
Of vessels, because comparative tests for
that purpose have never been made aboard
ship, the indus, where the organisms of
cholera, typhus fever smallpox, yellow
fever, etc, thrive so well, and evidently
where experiment to insure their destruc-
ton should be made. Neither the money
nor the material to carry out these expert
mcnts have ever been, nor are they likely
to be provided here; our state or city au-
thorities are not built that way. We have
not. either state or local board of health
here and 1 must therefore rely upon those
who are better off and ask them to fur
nish the material, and to put it in such
shape that ii can be utilized at this and
other quarantine stations upon the South
Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Tests must be
made to ascertain the comparative value
Of our best disiufectants, steam, sulphur,
and formaldehyde, sulphur burnt in parts,
sulphur dioXide forced in known quantity
by the fan, live steam without pressure
at a temperature of 145 degrees for l, 2, or
8 hours, steam with such pressure as
can be given and al higher temperature
and shorter duration, pure and dry for
maldehyde gas, of known percentage, and
different times from the simplest and most
readily handled apparatus.
These should be tried in the hold and
other parts of vessels. Cultures
should be prepared not on
slides or regulation plates
but upon material usually found on board
ship, such as wood, iron, dry rotted wood,
ticking, blanket cotton cloth, bagging
cloth, etc, and should be placed here and
there about the vessel. These cultures
should be carefully prepared They should
be recorded and numbered before they are
sent to the different stations, where expe-
riments are to be made, and here each
process should also be carefully recorded,
and sent back numbered to laboratories
where the results are to be ascertained.
Rules to secure uniformity I'm the man
ner of conducting these tests should ac-
company the cultures. "
1T is very evident, my dear general,
that such experiments should be insti-
gated, and their expense borne by the
government through the marine hospital
service 1t is a big undertaking for pri-
vate individuals, or for one state; it is
to benefit all the states and by right the
expense should be borne by the nation.
This is the reason l have addressed
you and ] still hope that as you now fully
understand the nature of the work, you
will set to work the machinery and help
to solve the mooted question. that is the
best most reliable, and easily handled
dislnfectant to be used at our quarantine
stations"