14. Do they examine the plumbing?

17. Is fumigation practiced after recovery and death; if so, how and by whom?-Continued.

State.

Town.

The order of the commissioner of health in such cases must be obeyed; otherwise, the work will be done by the department and payment enforced by law. The authority to enforce it is in the town board of health, according to their judg. ment. The statute law enforces their

judgment and their regulations. Penal ties not over $100. The power to enforce is so powerful we may be too slow to exercise it.

Ordinance, State statute, and common law.
Penalty as in No. 10.

Ordinance giving health officer supervision
of drains and sinks.
There is no law.
No.

Unfortunately, nothing specific.
Yes: penalty, imprisonment not exceeding
30 days or fine $200, or both.
Ordinance of municipal assembly 11,228,
provides for drains, &c., and provides pen-
alty of not less than $10 nor more than
$100 for violation.

In the case of small-pox it may be, according to the opinion of the health physician. Yes, by the family under the supervision of the sanitary inspector. Yes, with sulphur, one pound to every 1,000 cubic feet of space, to be fumigated, lasting from six to ten hours. The ordinances require it to be done by those having charge of the rooms where the sickness occurs; as a matter of fact it is done by the board of health in most cases. Fumigation is practiced by the health de partment invariably after cases of varioloid and yellow-fever have occurred. Also, should other contagious diseases show alarming frequency or a malignant type. Sulphur considered most practical and efficient. Thorough cleaning and ventilation insisted upon.

EXPERIMENTS WITH DISINFECTANTS—Continued. [By GEORGE M. STERNBERG, Surgeon U. S. Army.] Experiment No. 39, March 10.-Thirteen Ụ tubes prepared as in last experiment. (BULLETIN No. 37, p. 287.) A little boiled urine was introduced into each tube. Three tubes were inoculated with filtering paper which had been dipped into putrid urine containing bacteria, and then exposed for six hours in bottles (capacity 90 fl. oz.) containing per cent. of sulphurous acid gas; three tubes, per cent. of nitrous acid gas; three tubes, per cent. of chlorine; two tubes inoculated with paper dipped in putrid urine and not disinfected, and two tubes left with boiled urine only. The open end of each tube was plugged with cotton. Result, March 15: All the tubes are free from bacteria except the two inoculated with filtering paper not disinfected.

Experiment No. 40, March 17.-The above experiment was repeated, exposing the filtering paper dipped in putrid urine to per cent. of the disinfectants, for six hours. Result: The sulphurous acid tubes broke down in two days, the nitrous acid tubes in four or five days, and the chlorine tubes remained free from bacteria at the end of two weeks.

Experiment No. 41, April 3.-The above experiment was repeated, using pure carbolic acid (crystals) as the disinfectant. Twenty grains placed in bottle No. 1, ten grains in bottle No. 2, five grains in bottle No. 3; the filtering paper was suspended near the bottom of the bottle. Time of exposure, 36 hours. Result, April 11: No bacteria in any of the tubes. Abundant bacteria in tube inoculated with non-disinfected paper.

Experiment No. 42, April 12.-The above experiment repeated, using pure carbolic acid, grs. x, grs. v, and gr. 1. Time of exposure, six hours. Result, April 19: No bacteria in the three tubes inoculated

Yes, in every case; generally by the inspector, sometimes by the occupants of the premises under instructions from the inspector. Sulphurous acid gas being

used for the purpose. None required.

Yes, by a trained officer of the department; means sulphurous acid vapor by burning in a closed room 1 pound of sulphur to

every 1,000 cubic feet of space. Also, persons are excluded from public library, In addition, undertakers, clergymen, and all others concerned, are prohibited

from holding public funerals or exposing corpse at private funerals of persons deceased from infectious disease, under penalty same as in Nos. 10 and 16. In such cases no person under 18 years can attend as pall-bearer under same penalty: Again, all houses (every outside door) are placarded where infectious diseases exist until recovery or death, and disinfected by health officer. Moreover all railroad companies and others public carriers are prohibited from bringing to or carrying from the city any person with infectious disease, either alive or dead, under penalty same as in Nos. 10 and 16. In this office the common law, in the absence of contravening statutes, is enforced, and the people and the courts sustain the office. Yes, as to small-pox, varioloid, and cholera, fumigation or disinfection, at the option of the health officer and under his supervision. When directed by the physician.

By the parties concerned, watched by the attending physician, or, if necessary, by the health officer.

oculated from bottles No. 2 and No. 3 (grs. v, gr. 1).

Experiment No. 43, April 21.-Experiment repeated, using impure carbolic acid (crude carbolic acid, manufactured by Malincrode & Co., Saint Louis, and sold in New Orleans for disinfecting purposes). Amount of disinfectant used-bottle No. 1, 40 grains; bottle No. 2, 20 grains; bottle No. 3, 10 grains. Time of exposure, six hours.

Note.-To favor volatilization, slips of filtering paper were saturated with the crude acid and placed upon the bottoms of the bottles (capacity 90 fluid ounces). The slips of paper to be disinfected were suspended about the middle of each bottle. Result, April 24: All

the tubes have broken down and have a distinct white film of bacteia upon the surface of the fluid.

Remarks.-The amount of pure acid required to destroy the vitality of bacteria (10 grains, experiment No. 42) is equal to about 17 pounds in a room twelve feet square and 12 feet high (capacity 1,728 cubic feet), and to fulfill the conditions of the experiment in disinfecting on a large scale, it would be necessary to scatter this amount over the floor of a room having these dimensions, and to suspend articles to be disinfected near the floor for at least six hours, care being taken that all apertures were closed so that the fumes of the acid might not escape. Experiment No. 43 shows that four times this amount (68) pounds) of "crude" acid placed upon the floor of a room of the same dimensions would not destroy the vitality of bacteria exposed in the room for six hours. Experiment No. 24 (BULLETIN No. 29) shows that an amount of the impure acid equal to 46 fluid ounces volatilized in the same room will not destroy the potency of vaccine virus, in a moist state (rubbed up with glycerine) when the time of exposure is twelve hours. Finally, these experiments show that the popular idea, shared, perhaps, by some physicians, that an odor of carbolie acid in the sick-room, or in a foul privy is evidence that the place is disinfected, is entirely fallacious, and, in fact, that the use of this agent as a volatile disinfectant is impracticable, because of the expense of the pure acid and the enormous quantity required to produce the desired result.