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56
DISINFECTION OF ROOMS.
Sprays.—The Paris Municipality have for several years discarded
sulphur fumigations, and in their place have applied a disinfectant
(corrosive sublimate, bi-chloride of mercury) in solution, as a very
fine spray, to every part of the room to be disinfected. The
results have been satisfactory. The apparatus (an Equifex Sprayer)
used consists of a strong metal reservoir containing the solution, and
a hand-pump by which air is compressed to produce the spray
which is an extremely fine one. There are also tubes whereby
the spray may be projected against the surface to be disinfected.
Corrosive sublimate is, however, a very poisonous substance, and
from published accounts the persons using it in this way run some
risk. Moreover, I found on trial that metals not protected by paint
or lacquer, showed the action of the mercury salt, while the gilt on
wall papers became covered with dark specks. With a view to
discover if other agents might be substituted for corrosive sublimate,
I experimented with a number of other disinfectants* and I found
that formalin could be used in the same apparatus as a spray without
causing any deleterious effects upon wall paper, paint &c. Since then
it has been shown that so used it is effective as a germicide when used
in a very dilute state. When in Edinburgh during the recent meeting
of the British Medical Association, Dr. Leslie Mackenzie, Medical
Officer of Health for Leith, courteously gave me the opportunity of
seeing how he conducts the disinfection of a room. The time
occupied in spraying a room of 1,000 cubic feet is from fifteen to
thirty minutes under ordinary circumstances. If the room is dirty
or there is much dust, the operation takes longer, and may require
to be done a second time. He informed me that the walls of a large
ward of 20,000 cubic feet had been sprayed in slightly more than
an hour. He now uses a formalin spray of a strength of a little
over 2 per cent., and prefers it in place of all other forms of disinfection
of rooms except washing. He had ceased to use gaseous
disinfection, not because he considered it a thoroughly bad method
*The details were given in a paper read before the Society of Medical Officers of
Health, and published in " Public Health," March, 1897.