Home › Preservatives › Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid

Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid

A solution of chloride of zinc, made by dissolving zinc in commercial muriatic acid to saturation, and known as Sir William Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid, has been found most useful as a purifying agent, and in reare substances moving and destroying contagion. In puriwhich absorb, neutralize or destroy fying sick rooms or crowded places the soluputrescent effluvia and miasmata, and thus tion should be moistened by means of a piece remove the causes of infection. The princi- of flannel cloth, about 3 or 4 feet square, pal disinfectants are chlorine, the chlorides attached to a long rod and waved through the (hypochlorites) of lime and soda, chloride of air for 10 minutes at a time; in addition to zinc, charcoal, carbolic acid, the fumes of which the floor should be mopped or sprinkled nitric, nitrous, and sulphurous acids, and ven- over with the same dilute solution, if necestilation. The clothing, bedding, &c., of patients laboring under contagious diseases, may be effectually disinfected by exposing to a temperature of about that of boiling water.

Neither the texture nor color of textile fabrics The sary, several times a day, and a small quantity put into the close-stools and bed-pans. water-closets should also be cleansed with it, and 2 gallons occasionally thrown down each.

When floors and woodwork are washed with applied to any part recently washed or sprinkled with it. is injured even by a heat of 250° Fahr. It the solution, the use of soap or soda should is a practice at some of the poorhouses to be avoided immediately before or after its apbake the clothes of the paupers who have the plication; and whitewashing should not be itch, or are infested with vermin. Quicklime rapidly absorbs carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and several other noxious gases, and is therefore commonly used as a wash for the walls of buildings. Acetic acid, camphor, 1696. Το Purify a Sick Chamber.

The nitrous acid vapor, so invaluable as a disinfectant in contagious fevers, is obtained by fragrant pastils, cascarilla, and other similar decomposing nitre by means of heated sulphursubstances, are frequently burnt or volatilized ic acid, in the following manner: Put 1/2 ounce by heat, for the purpose of disguising un- sulphuric acid in a crucible glass or china cup pleasant odors. The chlorides as well as the and warm it over a lamp or in heated sand, sulphates of iron and lime have the property adding to it from time to time a little nitre. of rapidly destroying noxious effluvia. A Several of these vessels must be placed in the quantity of either of these sulphates thrown sick chamber and in the neighboring apartinto a cesspool, for instance, will in a few ments and passages, at a distance of 20 feet hours remove the fetid smell. or more from each other, according to the DISINFECTANTS. height of the ceiling and the virulence of the and makes it drinkable. A tea-spoonful to a contagion. As an evidence of the value of hogshead is generally enough, but if added this method of disinfection it may be men- until the water acquires a permanent faint tioned that Dr. Carmichael Smyth, of London, by whom it was originally practiced, received from Parliament a premium of £5,000 for his discovery. tinge, we are certain that injurious organic matter has been destroyed. Then, as Condy suggests, if a piece of clean stick be put into the liquid, or if a little tea or coffee be added, the pink color will disappear, and the water will be fit for use. The very small amount of potassa remaining in the solution could not possibly do any harm, as it would not amount to part of a grain to the gallon. 1697. Hyponitrous Acid as a Disinfectant. A special commission was appointed by the Academy of Sciences at Paris, to study the different means of disinfecting those localities which, during the siege, had been appropriated to persons afflicted with *contagious diseases. Its report furnishes some useful guides to the selection and the application of disinfectants. It was agreed sulphate of lime, 264 pounds; mix and form that the very first place among destructive into balls. To be placed in cesspools, &c., agents which can attack and destroy infec- to deodorize them. M. Siret has subsequently tious germs, should be assigned to hyponi- modified this compound thus: Sulphate of trous acid. Great precaution should be exercised, however, by those employing the very dangerous nitrous vapors.