Practical disinfection in schools / by A.C. Houston.

  • Houston, Alexander C. (Alexander Cruikshank), Sir, 1865-1933.
Date:
[1902?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Practical disinfection in schools / by A.C. Houston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    opinion (Appendix E). In the London County Council experi¬ ments (Appendix C) we found sulphur dioxide reliable, under the conditions of our experiments, as regards B. typhosus, B. diphtherias, B. pyocyaneus, V. cholerae, and S. aureus ; but unre¬ liable as regards tubercular sputum and spores of B. anthracis. As Dr. Newman and others have pointed out, much depends on keeping the air of the room moist during the process of disin¬ fection. Its injurious action on many household goods is a serious disadvantage, and in this respect it compares unfavour¬ ably with formalin.8 Personally, I think that a fair amount of reliance may be placed on sulphur dioxide, provided the air of the room is kept moist, 3 to 6 lb. of sulphur burned to every i,ooo cubic feet of space, the room securely sealed up and left undisturbed for twenty-four hours. As regards (4) formic aldehyde, the general consensus of medical opinion is clearly in favour of this substance yielding superior results to all other gaseous disinfectants. The con¬ clusions arrived at by Dr. Kenwood and Professor Sheridan Delepine have been placed on record in Appendix D and Appendix E. At the period, however, when Dr. Kenwood’s results were discussed (Congress of the Sanitary Institute at Leeds, in 1897), Professor G. Sims Woodhead took a less san¬ guine view than his colleagues of the value of formalin. Dr. Rideal carried out a series of experiments with the alformant lamp, and came to the conclusion that by using 10 grammes of para-formaldehyde for every 1,000 cubic feet disinfection was reasonably perfect.9 The experiments of Drs. Klein, Gordon, and Houston (Appendix C) seemed to show that, although formalin was more satisfactory as regards tubercular sputum than sulphur dioxide, neither of these disinfectants could be wholly relied on to kill either the tubercle bacillus or anthrax spores. The results were satisfactory regards B. typhosus,