Report on chlorine, bromine, iodine, and sulphurous acid as disinfectants / by Dr. Cash.

  • Cash, John Theodore, 1854-1936.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on chlorine, bromine, iodine, and sulphurous acid as disinfectants / by Dr. Cash. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    4/16 (page 428)
    Apr. B. No. 4. On Chlorine, Bromine, ic., as Disinfectants; bv Dr. Cash. CnLOBINE Solution. Anthrax spores. Tubercle. A solution of less strength appeared to be inoperative even when applied for a long time, as the following results will show. A solution of CI. j^gg wa« carefully prepared from a dcciuormal solution. This solution contained therefore -000035 grm.CI. per 1 C.C. Tlu' fresh blood was taken of a guinea-pie: which had been inoculated two days previously with anthrax spores. Three tubes were prepared of this, each containing 1 drop of the chlorine solution (='0000035 CI.) to -02 minims of blood thoroughly mixed. The drop employed was exactly Xth of 1 C.C. The three tubes were closed, and after 5', 30', and 60' interval, they were used respectively for the inoculation of three guinea-pigs. These three animals were found dead the day but one after, the blood of each being crowded with anthrax bacilli. The dilution here was therefore so great that disinfectant action was lost, even when exposure of the bacilli had been of considerable duration. In another experiment In which the exposure of the blood to the action of the same amount of chlorine was continued for 24 hours (at room temperature), the mouse inoculated therewith died of well marked anthrax, but a double repetition of the experiment gave the opposite result. Spores.—Chlorine solution of the strength of — mixed in the propor- tion of 20 parts to one of a strong cultivation of anthrax spores (beef broth), destroys the spores within 24 hours. My experiments upon the destruction of spores are not yet completed. Chlorine on Tubercular Material.—The following experiment was attended by a usual, but as will be seen by a not invariable result. Bovine Tuberculosis.—Source.—The spleen of a tubercular guinea-pig which had itself been inoculated from another animal suffering from bovine tuberculosis. A portion of this spleen was reduced to a condition of pulp in a mortal-, the mixture strained th-ough muslin and diluted to 1 C.C. One twentieth part of a drop of this infusion was thoroughly mixed with one drop of r^g freshly controlled chlorine solution. Two tubes were charged with the same mixture and exposed at room tem- perature. Inoculation took place of two guinea-pigs, one after the mixture had stood for one hour, the second after 24 hours. The first animal (one hour) rapidly developed tubercular glandular swelling, but the second, 24 hours, showed no ill effect from the inoculation. The amount of chlorine here present was '000035 grm., and the solution of spleen employed was a very strong one. It is evident, therefore, that where the chlorine is in excess its action will continue to exert itself until the activity of the tubercle microbe is destroyed, the process of destruction demanding a considerable time for its accom- plishment when weak solutions of the disinfectant are used. I have the record of one experiment in which the conditions of pro- cedure were exactly similar to those above detailed, but in this case though the mixture had stood for 28h. 30m., tuberculosis was induced from inoculation. Using a strong infusion of a tubercular lung (one lung to 2 C.C. distilled water) I found that 4 minims of a chlorine solution, containing •0008 grm. chlorine, destroyed the virus in one drop of such lung infusion within 90'.