Remarks on deodorization and disinfection, and on Dr. Sir William Burnett's disinfecting fluid, the solution of the chloride of zinc / by T. Stratton.

  • Stratton, T. (Thomas), 1816-1886.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on deodorization and disinfection, and on Dr. Sir William Burnett's disinfecting fluid, the solution of the chloride of zinc / by T. Stratton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    VI.—Of the Burnett Fluid, as compared with some other Jlgents employed or recommended for similar purposes. 1. Burning sulphur in the air, and so producing sul- phurous acid, has been employed for purifying the at- mosphere, but the odour is unpleasant, and the vapour is sometimes irritant to the air-passages. 2. Dr. Johnstone proposed, and Dr. Carmichael Smith obtained £5000 from Parliament, for suggesting the em- ployment of nitrous gas, (made with nitrate of potass and sulphuric acid) ; but this gas is disagreeable to mo6t persons, and in some diseases its inhalation is injurious. 3. Producing chlorine gas with common salt, manga- nese, and sulphuric acid, is troublesome and disagreea- ble, and making it with oxymuriate of potass is the same. The use of the chloride of lime is attended with the inconvenience of making white spots on floors, carpets, furniture, or any other surfaces to which it is applied ; it likewise changes colours, and is corrosive. The inha- lation of chlorine gas is disagreeable to most persons, and in some chest diseases it is injurious, so that among the mixed cases in a large hospital, its general employment is inadmissable. The diluted Burnett fluid is preferable to the above agents, as while it destroys odours, it is itself odorless, and it does not injure the colour or texture of cloth ; on the contrary, it is largely used for the preservation from decay of cloth and wood. In Her Majesty's dock- yards, canvass and timber are immersed in it, and these articles are found to last much longer than others. 4. Of the Burnett Fluid as compared with Ledoyen's Disinfecting Fluid. As the Ledoyen fluid is a solution of the nitrate of lead, it is, like the other preparations of lead, liable to produce some one or other of their long-known bad effects,* such as colic, palsy, pain in the course of the spine, giddiness, coma, apoplexy, constipation, indiges- * Alluded to by me, in a paper on Emigration, in Dr. Hall's British American Medical Journal, for April, 1848.