On charcoal as a disinfectant : being a letter to the editor of the "Times," as published in that journal on the 22nd November, 1854 / by Dr. John Stenhouse.
- Stenhouse, John
- Date:
- [1854]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On charcoal as a disinfectant : being a letter to the editor of the "Times," as published in that journal on the 22nd November, 1854 / by Dr. John Stenhouse. 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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![noxious organic impurities floating in it than those present in water, should have, up till February last, been so unaccountably overlooked. Charcoal not only absorbs effluvia and gaseous bodies ; but, especially w^hen in contact with atmos- pheric air, rapidly oxidizes and destroys many of the easily alterable ones, by resohdng them into the simplest combinations they are capable of forming, which are chiefly water and carbonic acid. It is on this oxidizing property of charcoal as well as on its absorbent power that its efficacy as a deo^ dorizing and disinfecting agent chiefly depends. Effluvia and miasmata are usually regarded as highly organized, nitrogenous, easily alterable bodies. .When these are absorbed by charcoal, they come in contact with highly condensed oxygen gas, which exists within the pores of all charcoal which has been exposed to the air, even for a few minutes; in this way they are oxidized and destroyed. My attention has been specially directed for nearly a twelvemonth to the deodorizing and disinfecting pro- perties of charcoal, and I have made an immense number of experiments on this subject. On the 22nd of February last I brought the sub- ject before the Society of Arts, and on that occasion exhibited a specimen of a charcoal respirator and the mode of employing it. I likewise dwelt at some length on the utility of charcoal ]iowder as a means of preventing the escape of noxious effluvia from churchyards, and from dead bodies on board ship and in other situations.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21472713_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
