Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-21
POISONOUS DISlNFECT-
ANTS.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

few weeks ago the whole country was
shocked by the tragic death Of B. San
ders Walker. a young banker of Macon,
Ga who swallowed tablet OF bichloride
of mercury in the belief that 1t was a
tablet of aspirin. Since public interest
was fastened on that particular case
scores Of cases have been reported
Of poisoning by the same method.
some Of them accidental. as In the
case of the Georgia Banker. and
many OF them intentional. The fact that
bichloride OF mercury tablets are in COM
mon use as disinfectants. and. that they
may be procured by anybody without any
difficulty has caused an inquiry to be
made into the dangers to which families
are exposed In the homes by reason of
the careless handling OF poisonous dis
infectants.
Few families arc without one or more
d.sinfectants or germicides upon the med
icine shelf or in the storeroom. and their
use ranges from the destruction OF va
riOus kinds of bacteria to that of larger
insect pests, such as feas. lice bedbugs
and ticks, the latter occurring chief1y
upon domestic animals and cattle Many
of these preparations are sold under va
rious names and the housekeeper has
no means of knowing the extent of risk
she is running by their careless use.
x y
Most OF the dlsinfectants In popular
use have one Of the coal tar products
as basis and many of
Many ClaSSed them are supposed TO be
harmless. The increasing
% AAoA A1ioSS' number Of deaths and
poisoning cases from the use OF dis1n-
fectants led to a series of Investigations
upon the toxicity of the coal tar 1disin-
fectants by the hygienic laboratory con-
nected with the United States public
health service. This investigation is still
continuing, although a bulletin regarding
certain results OF the tests made upon
we'll known proprietary disinfectants has
just been published for public dlstrbu-
ton.
Carbolic acid, which is one Of the first
and more important of the coal tar prod
uctS, is used in germicides by it's more
technical term phenol. which for some
reason Is less deadly in sound than car
bolic acid and therefore excites less eau
ton In Its use. The housewife who would
be alarmed at the careless handling of
carbolic acid Is frequently Indifferent to
the word phenol even IL 1t appears in the
phenol is tie term applied to the first and
most deadly form of carbolic acid
One of the series of experiments made
at the hygienic laboratory for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the poisonous quail
tiles of commercial disinfectants inciud
ed the testing of twenty-five of those
most frequently seen upon the market
and marked as non-pOisonous, and ad-
ministering them I'm more or less minute
doses to MICE cats, guinea pigs and other
small animals and noting the effect. Their
toxicity was sufficient to cause death
both when administered. through the
stomach or by injection beneath the skin.
Most Of the experiments accepted in the
tests followed preliminary experiments
which determined that all phenol disin-
fectants were poisonous although not to
the degree that pure phenol would be-
The continued experiments were to as
certain the degree Of poisoning power
possessed by solution varying from 21a
to 20 per cent in strength. In some ami
mas the effect Of the poison was evil
denced more quickly when administered
through the stomach than subcutaneous-
ly. while in others the time was about
equal.