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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    vessels full of holes, in consequence of the fluid having been left in them for some time. It was found also to injure the texture of cloth, so that sheets, pillow-cases, and towels that had been wet with it, were rendered nearly useless. I witnessed several comparative trials of the two fluids with regard to their power over feculent odours, and in all of them, I considered, that the Burnett fluid had much more effect than Ledoyen's. In Montreal, some of each fluid was added to a quantity of feculent matter in a couple of vessels: a few minutes after, fecu- lent odour had a good deal disappeared from the L. vessel, and almost entirely from the B. vessel. The vessels were kept, and, a week after, I looked at them: on the B. vessel being stirred, there was no odour; on the L. vessel being stirred, the odour was nearly the same as it was before the fluid was added. In Quebec, Dr. Painchaud, sen.,* of the Marine and Emigrant Hospital, wrote out an excellent plan for testing the comparative deodorizing powers of the Bur- nett and Ledoyen fluids, by which the judges were to give their opinions, unconscious of whose fluid it was, in favour of which they were voting. The result of this trialf was in favour of the Burnett fluid, and it afforded no little amusement to the other umpires, and caused no small vexation to himself, that Mr. Ledoyen's zealous and enthusiastic colleague was found to have voted (of course, unconsciously) against their fluid : Mr. Ledoyen himself conducted his own part of the trial, while I ex- perimented with the other fluid, and neither of us voted. Pereira,{ after enumerating the various medicinal and the poisonous effects of the preparations of lead, de- * Whom I take this opportunity of thanking, for the obliging disposition he showed while I was making trials of the fluid in the Hospital. t Detailed in the Montreal Courier of 20th October, and other papers, and in the London Medical Gazette of 26th November, and Dublin Medical Press of 8th December. One or two periodicals erroneously supposed that the judges in this trial considered they were experimenting on something more than the deodorizing properties of the fluids. t Materia Medica, Lond , 1812, p. 805.