After stating thus much, it is needless to say that we only recommend the adoption of the following treatment, in the extreme case of emigrants and others unable to obtain the services of a medical practitioner. A saturated solution of borax in the form of a gargle should be first used, and used without stint. Should this fail to arrest the formation of the membrane, then a strong solution of alum should be employed instead; or alum in powder should be applied to the throat every half hour or hour. When children are to be submitted to this treatment, the alum instead of being used as a gargle may be mixed with honey, and in this condition laid on the parts with a feather; or the powdered alum may be blown on the affected parts with a tube. Tincture of perchloride of iron, diluted hydrochloric acid, and chlorate of potash are also said to have been used successfully as topical applications. The diet should consist of rich nourishing food, such as strong beef tea and mutton broth, aided by port wine. The internal remedies embrace quinine or bark, tincture of perchloride of iron, pernitrate of iron, chlorate of potash, and small, but repeated doses of the mineral acids. Dr Gardner, in his useful work ‘Household Medicine,’ says, “a definite plan said to have been successful is to employ as a gargle a solution of chlorinated soda half an ounce, syrup half an ounce, water six ounces, mixed. At the same time give internally four drops of the solution every two hours, for two days, then add quinine. We may add that if this latter prescription be used the diet before indicated should be adopted.”
DISCU′TIENTS. In surgery, substances or agents which disperse or resolve tumours, &c. See Digestives.
DISH-COVERS. As these are made of
various materials they must be cleaned and polished with the substances best adapted for each. All kinds of dish-covers directly they come from table should be washed free from grease and wiped dry.
Plated and silver dish-covers should be polished with plate powder; that free from mercury should be preferred. When dish-covers (as is usually the case) are made of block tin, they should be polished, by first rubbing them with sweet oil, and then dusting over the oil finely powdered whiting; finishing off the polishing with soft rags. All the best covers are provided with movable handles, which must be removed during the process of cleaning.
DISINFECT′ANT. An agent which absorbs, neutralises, or destroys, putrescent effluvia, miasmata, or specific contagia, and thus removes the causes of infection. The principal disinfectants are chlorine, iodine, bromine, the so-called chlorides of lime and soda, chloride of zinc, ozone, carbolic acid, the alkaline manganates and permanganates, peat charcoal, the fumes of nitric and nitrous acid, sulphurous acids, heat, and ventilation. The last two are the most efficient and easily applied. The clothing, bedding, &c., of patients labouring under contagious diseases may be effectually (?) disinfected by exposure to a temperature a little higher than that of boiling water, for about an hour. Neither the texture nor colour of textile fabrics is injured by a heat of even 250° Fahr. (Dr Henry.) See Disinfecting Chambers.
It is a practice at some of the workhouses to bake the clothes of the paupers who have the itch, or who are infested with vermin. The soaking and boiling of clothes in the absence of being able to bake them is by no means a bad method for disinfecting them. The process is rendered the more effective by adding to the water in which they are immersed or boiled 1 part of strong solution of chloride of lime to 20 or 30 parts of water; or carbolic acid in the proportion of 1 part of the pure acid to 100 parts of water. In the German army, if the clothes cannot be baked they are soaked for 24 hours in water containing 1 part of sulphate of zinc to 120 of water, or 1 part of chloride of zinc to 240 of water, after which they are washed in soap and water and dried.
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, fragrant pastilles, cascarilla, brown paper, and other similar substances, are frequently burnt or volatilised by heat, for the purpose of disguising unpleasant odours, but are of little value as disinfectants. The sulphates of iron and zinc have the property of rapidly destroying noxious effluvia. A quantity of either of these sulphates thrown into a cesspool, for instance, will in a few hours render the matter therein quite scentless. Of gaseous disinfectants, “sulphurous acid gas (obtained by burning sulphur) is preferable, on theoretical grounds, to chlorine. No agent checks so effectually the first development of animal and vegetable life. All animal odours and emanations are immediately and most effectually destroyed by it.” (Graham.) See Antiseptic, Deodoriser, Fumigation, Infection, Ozone, Carbolic acid, Salicylic acid, Bacteria as originators of disease, Lime, Chloride, Charcoal, also the Disinfecting Compounds given below.
Dr Wynter Blyth divides disinfectants into two great classes:—Gaseous, and solid or liquid.
I. Volatile, in the form of Gas or Vapour.