On disinfection by heat : with a description of a new disinfecting chamber / by James Adams, M.D.

  • James Maxwell Adams
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On disinfection by heat : with a description of a new disinfecting chamber / by James Adams, M.D. 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.

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    is attained. And so the circulating current goes on traversing jind retraversing tlie general chamber fi-om end to end and from top to bottom in brisk movement as long as the stove con- tinues lighted. The princi])le of action is analogous to that of heating by hot water i)ipes. This automatic movement of hot air in a circle ensures a nearly equal temperature through- out the chamber. The briskly moving current passes through the suspended clothing more effectively than a stagnant at- mosphere can penetrate. It jilays in the manner of a light breeze, rustling the garments, disengaging and floating off infective matter, while the rapidly successive impact of heated air molecules nmst oxidise more effectively than a still atmos- phere. The volume of air drawn through the stove furnace would suffice to fill the chamber more than twice every hour. That quantity is replaced by fresh air continuously admitted from the exterior through a simple valve that prevents reflux. The much greater body of air that moves tlu'ough the chamber in an automatic circuit would suffice to fill and empty it about fifteen times within an hour, giving a complete revolution and replace- ment about once every four minutes. All infective matter volatilised and floating in the larger current is therefore being continuously heated and re-heated within the pure air caliducts of the stove, while any matter floating in the smaller current that is being continuously dra\vn through the stove furnace and burned gases caliducts, is thorouglity carbonised and conclu- sively dealt with. At the expiry of the time given to the operation, an aperture in the upper part of the chamber is opened to permit the escape of the confined air, which passes through a pipe that has its point of discharge underneath a solid gas flame, so that any infective matter still suspended in the air must pass through this flame. Thm, from heginmng lill the end of the operation, all volatilised matter liberated in the chamber mnst pass through flame. I place much stress, and not unduly, on the paramount im- portance of imprisoning volatile infective matter throughout the entire period given to a disinfecting operation. There is other- wise a very fallacious security. The quantity of epidermic scales shed from the skin of patients affected with t}q)hus, s.carlatiua, smallpox, and other eruptive fevers throughout the desqua- mative or convalescent period is very great, and these together ^vith the more subtle, or less visible emanations exhaled by the skin or breath, or the grosser discharges from ty])hoid or dip- theritic patients, contain the matter that makes those diseases commuicable. I have seen the shirts and other clothing of such