Licence: In copyright
Credit: A manual of bacteriology, clinical and applied / by R. Tanner Hewlett. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
703/758 (page 635)
![laboratory cultures, but in practice need to be used in excess proportionate to the amount of organic matter which may be present. Thus, for instance, a ] per cent, solution of hypochlorite of soda mixed with an equal volume of urine loses the whole of its available chlorine almost immediately, and becomes inert as a germicide. Where the amount of organic matter is small, and the objects are not likely to be injured, the hypochlorites are among the best of known disinfectants, provided they are used fresh. The slow addition of hydrochloric acid, yielding nascent chlorine, increases the activity of a hypo- chlorite considerably. A solution of iodine is now used for skin disinfection in surgical practice. Iodine trichloride is a powerful disinfectant, of which the use has been suggested, among other purposes, for the sterilisation of water. Nessfield has suggested the use of chlorine for sterilising water on the large scale, and iodine for the same purpose on the small scale (p. 599). Chloride of lime or other hypochlorite may be used for sterilising water on the large scale (p. 600). Other inorganic substances.—Solutions of salts of mercury exercise a powerful disinfectant action in proportion to the amount of dissolved metal which they contain. The most commonly used is the perchloride (corrosive sub- limate). Apart from its extremely poisonous character, it has the disadvantage of forming with albuminoid sub- stances both insoluble and soluble compounds of little or no germicidal value, sulphuretted hydrogen converts it into the insoluble and inert sulphide, and it acts on some metals. I he addition of acids or salts (e.g. hydrochloric oi tartaric acid or sodium or ammonium chloride) prevents °i largely reduces the formation of insoluble compounds ; but it does not prevent the reactions resulting in soluble substances, it may reduce the germicidal power, and the action of perchloride in the presence of albuminoids is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21931896_0703.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
