THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 259
gas, may advantageously be used; and, in certain
other cases, powdered charcoal or fresh dry earth.
Quick-lime ought to have been recently burnt,
and may be used, either in the form of dry powder,
or, stirred up with about ten times its bulk of water
as milk of lime. Chloride of lime is best used with
water, and thoroughly mixed with it, in the propor-
tion of a pound to the gallon; or, of the solution, as
commonly sold, about two pints may be mixed with
a gallon of water. Carbolic acid (in the fluid form
in which it is commonly sold) should be dissolved in
about eighty times its volume of water, with which
it must be mixed by strong shaking in a closed
vessel. Sulphate of iron should be dissolved in ten
times its weight of water; a solution which is best
effected by employing hot water and stirring. Of
perchloride of iron and chloride of manganese, the
common concentrated solutions may be used, diluted
with ten or twelve times their bulk of water.
Sulphate of zinc should be dissolved in about ten
times its weight of warm water. Of chloride of
zinc, the common concentrated solution may be
diluted with eight or ten times its bulk of water.*
Of chloride of soda, the common solution may be
used like that of chloride of lime. Of permanganate
of potash an ounce may be dissolved in a gallon of
water.+

All disinfectants must be used in quantities pro-
portionate to the amount of matter or surface to be
disinfected. When the matters requiring to be
disinfected have an offensive smell, the disinfectant
should be used till this smell has entirely ceased;
and as often as the smell recurs, the disinfectant
must again be used.

1. During the emptying of privies and cesspools,
   and whenever else temporary disinfection is required
   for them, carbolic acid, or sulphate of iron, or
   perchloride of iron, or chloride of manganese, or
   chloride of zinc, will be found available. A dilute
   solution (as above) of one of those agents should be
   poured into the privy or cesspool, from a quart to a
   pailful at a time, till the desired effect is obtained.
   Especially where cholera or typhoid fever is present,
   privies and cesspools ought to be very frequently
   flooded in this manner. The best test of their being
   adequately disinfected, is the entire absence of fæcal
   or ammoniacal odour.

2. Heaps of manure or other filth, if it be for the
   time impracticable or inexpedient to remove them,
   should be covered, to the depth of two or three
   inches, with a layer of freshly-burnt vegetable char-
   coal in powder. Freshly-burnt lime may be used in
   the same way, but is less effective than charcoal. If
   neither charcoal or lime be at hand, the filth should
   be covered with a layer, some inches thick, of clean
   dry earth. For a privy which has only solid contents,
   the same sort of treatment is applicable. Earth near
   dwellings, if it has become offensive or foul by the
   soakage of decaying animal or vegetable matter, should
   be treated on the same plan.

3. If running sewage, about to be used in agri-
   culture, require to be disinfected, the chloride of
   manganese or perchloride of iron may be best used;‡
   but if the sewage is to pass into a river, or into any
   pond or canal, where it might again become offensive,
   chloride of lime is to be preferred; and in this case
   a pound of good chloride of lime will generally
   suffice to disinfect 1000 gallons of the sewage. For

• Or the preparations respectively known as Burnett's and
  Crewe's disinfectant solutions may be employed.

• Or Condy's disinfectant fluids, which contain manganic
  and permanganic salts, may be used.
  ‡ In some such cases McDougall's process, as practised by
  him at Carlisle, may be applicable. And his powder may also
  be applicable to cases mentioned in § 1.
  foul ditches and other stagnant drainage, chloride of
  lime is also the proper disinfectant.

4. Where it is desirable to disinfect, before
   throwing away, the evacuations from the bowels of
   persons suffering from cholera or typhoid fever, some
   of the disinfectant (which here may best be chloride
   of lime) should be put into the bed-pan or other
   vessel before it is used by the patient, and some
   more should be added immediately after. Its
   thorough mixture with the evacuation should be
   ensured. Care should also be taken that portions of
   the discharges do not remain about the patient's
   body, or in his dress.

5. Linen and washing apparel requiring to be
   disinfected may be set to soak in water containing
   per gallon about an ounce either of the common
   clear solution of chloride of lime, or of that of
   chloride of soda. Or the articles in question may be
   plunged into boiling water, and afterwards, when at
   wash, be actually boiled in washing-water.

6. Woollens, bedding or clothing, which cannot
   be washed, may be disinfected by exposure for two
   or more hours, in chambers constructed for the
   purpose, to a temperature of F. 210°-250°. When
   this cannot be done, the natural disinfecting process
   of prolonged exposure to air, sun, and rain, ought
   to be had recourse to.

7. For the disinfection of the interior of houses,
   the ceilings and walls should be washed with warm
   quick-lime water. The wood-work should be cleansed
   with soap and water, and subsequently washed with
   water containing in each gallon about two ounces of
   the clear solution of either chloride of lime or
   chloride of soda.

8. A room no longer occupied may be disinfected
   by chlorine gas, or nitrous acid gas, or sulphurous
   acid gas. And for this purpose the gases may be
   produced in the room as follows:-chlorine gas, by
   pouring over a quarter of a pound of finely powdered
   black oxide of manganese, contained in a jar, half a
   pint of muriatic acid previously mixed with a quarter
   of a pint of water, or by pouring over a quarter of a
   pound of chloride of lime, contained in a jar, a
   quarter of a pint of muriatic or dilute sulphuric
   acid:-nitrous acid gas, by pouring over an ounce of
   copper shavings or turnings, contained in a deep jar,
   three ounces of concentrated nitric acid;-sulphurous
   acid gas, by burning an ounce or two of flower of
   sulphur in a pipkin. The process of disinfecting a
   room by any of these gases requires several hours;
   and while it is going on, all doors, chimneys, and
   windows of the room must be kept carefully closed.
   Precautions to this effect should have been taken
   before the chemicals are mixed, as the person who
   starts the process (having to avoid the gases) must
   not afterwards loiter in the room. When the process
   is at an end, doors and windows should be fully
   opened.

9. Ships (except the class of cattle ships, for which
   special treatment is required) may be disinfected on
   the same plan as houses. The process should be
   conducted as distantly as may be from the shore and
   from other vessels. All the compartments of the
   ship should first be fumigated with some disinfectant
   gas, best with chlorine or nitrous acid, and then all
   the accessible woodwork (in and out) should be
   washed with a solution of chloride of soda or lime.
   The bilges require particular attention, and before
   they are first pumped, some pounds of chloride of
   lime in water, or some gallons of solution of perch-
   loride of iron, should be poured into them, for the
   purpose of disinfecting the bilge water. All
   permanent shingle and small-grained ballast should
   be replaced by fresh.

It is most frequently with reference to the infection
of yellow fever that ships require to be disinfected,