The disinfectant question : review of a book by Dr. R. Angus Smith, entitled Disinfectants and disinfection.

Date:
1869
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disinfectant question : review of a book by Dr. R. Angus Smith, entitled Disinfectants and disinfection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    deal it also a similar blow on the score of its pre¬ tended costliness. “Manganese,” he says (p. 37), “ condenses oxygen, forming permanganate of potash, a substance beautiful in colour and innocent in cha¬ racter, whilst it oxydizes powerfully all the foulest bodies, and removes the most putrid odours as if by magic. We have to thank Mr. Condy for teaching us its use. It is certainly an elegant disinfectant, a name which it bears in opposition to antiseptic, which it is not, as it does not preserve.” But this eulogistic language is followed by the blow and discouragement in the shape of a statement which, if true, would, so far as practical use goes, render the eulogy entirely nugatory. “ In cow-houses, and even in families, these two substances (peroxide of hydrogen and Condy’s Fluid), are expensive.” And, again (p. 129), “ For disinfection, when putrefaction has advanced, and the smell is to be removed, there is, perhaps, nothing superior or even equal to chloride of lime, unless we except peroxide of hydrogen and perman¬ ganate of potash (Condy’s Fluid), which are expen¬ sive.” Condy’s Fluid, a thoroughly popularized pre¬ paration, put, in. the matter of price, along with peroxide of hydrogen, which is still a chemical curiosity ! It so happens, however, that this state¬ ment, regarding the expense of disinfecting by Condy’s Fluid, is utterly erroneous. The very con¬ trary is the case. When compared with the substance of Dr. Smith’s predilection,—namely, carbolic acid, this preparation will be found, without reference to comparative efficacy, to cost only one fourth as much. The contrast based on the prices and directions, which are given on Condy’s label, and that of Calvert, one of the best makers of carbolic acid, stands thus:— Price. Quantity produced Cost of when diluted for use dilution Condy’s Fluid Is., per pint 80 quarts £d. p. gal. Calvert’s carbolic acid Is. 6d. per lb. 20 quarts 3d. p. gal. When carbolic acid, free of any vehicle, compares so disadvantageously, as to cost, with Condy’s Fluid, how much more disadvantageously must it contrast with that substance, when compounded in small pro¬ portion with a large amount of foreign matter, the