On the application of disinfectants in arresting the spread of the cattle plague : report to Her Majesty's commissioners / by William Crookes.

  • William Crookes
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the application of disinfectants in arresting the spread of the cattle plague : report to Her Majesty's commissioners / by William Crookes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    18/66 page 16
    animals, to be waslied with petroloum, and the bodies of the cattle were afterwards riibbed over wit)i a cloth soaked in the same material. The farm servants had orders to wash their hands, boots, &c., in a mixture of petroleum and water, and to sprinkle their clothes with the mixture, whilst a little petroleum was added to the animals' food and drink. Their excrements were fre- quently removed, and the floor was sprinkled with petroleum. No dogs were admitted on any pretence. For five days these precautions were rigidly ob- served, when they were somewhat relaxed. They were attended with complete success, and there is little doubt that, carried out as rigidly in this country, the same good results would ensue. A copy of M. Veron's pamphlet was forwarded to me, and many experiments have been made in consequence. Petroleum depends for its value upon a small quantity (i or 2 per cent.) of either carbolic acid or a substance allied to it, and Dr. Angus Smith has shown that when this substance is removed by appropriate means the purified petroleum has no antiseptic value. This being the case, no experiments on the large scale were tried with petroleum, as they would necessarily be similar, but inferior in their results, to those of the tar acids. 43. The choice is therefore limited to the oxidising disinfectants—chlorine and ozone, and the antiseptics —sulphurous and the tar acids. These are repre- sentative bodies, and numerous trials have been made with them before coming to a conclusion as to their respective merits; the results being embodied in the following pages. 24. I am bound to admit that the conclusion to which I have been forced to come is quite opposed to my preconceived ideas on the subject. I started with a strong bias in favour of chlorine and ozone, but the irresistible force of the arguments derived from my experiments has caused me to alter my opinion. Oxidising Disinfectants. 25, At first sight nothing appears more perfect than the action of a powerfully oxidising disinfectant, like chlorine or ozone, upon noxious vapours and septic
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