A wine-glassful added to the water of a night-chair or bed-pan, will prevent any smell. To destroy the effluvia from drains, sewers, cesspools, &c., pour into them a quart of the mixture, with a pail of water.
Meat sprinkled with, or dipped in the mixture, and hung in the air, will not be attacked by flies, nor be tainted, for some time.
Water in cisterns may be purified, and its animalcula killed, by putting about a pint of the mixture to one hundred gallons of water.
This mixture will also destroy bugs, if the joints and crevices of bedsteads be washed with it. It will likewise remove the smell of paint in a day, if the newly painted room be sprinkled with it, and if some be placed there in dishes or saucers.
341. Disinfecting Liquid.—In a wine-bottle full of cold water dissolve two ounces of sugar of lead, and add two ounces of aqua-fortis. Shake the mixture well. A very small quantity of the liquid in its strongest form should be used for cleansing all chamber utensils. To remove offensive odors, dilute the liquid with eight or ten parts of water, moisten clean cloths thoroughly with it, and hang them in various parts of the room. The offensive gases are neutralized by chemical action. Fumigation is merely substituting one odor for another. In all practicable cases, fresh air, and plenty of it, is far the best disinfectant.
342. To prevent Abrasions of the Skin in persons confined to their beds; a very valuable recipe.—Apply occasionally to the tender parts of the body, with a feather, this mixture. Beat to a strong froth the white of an egg, then drop in gradually, while beating it, two tea-spoonfuls of spirits of wine. Bottle it for use.