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of water, especially boiling water, the arrest or neutralisation of alkalinity in the
discharged matters, by the use of chemical substances, the oxidation of the
virus by the use of the permanganates, and lastly the destruction of the vitality
of the specific virus by means of carbolic acid, or fire, are all means
which are applicable in their several degrees to particular cases, and to special
circumstances. A supply of carbolic acid was kept and distributed to medical
men having charge of cases of cholera and diarrhoea, to be placed in the utensils into
which the discharges were received; sometimes, however, other chemical substances
were employed for this purpose by private practitioners, such as Burnett's Solution of
Zinc, or Sulphate of Iron, or Condy's Solution of Permanganate. But, whether these
were used or not, the discharges thrown into the closets were always followed up
immediately under my directions by a quantity of carbolic acid, poured into the
closets and house drains, both of the house where the case of cholera or choleraic
diarrhoea occurred, and into those of adjoining houses. I commenced to do this from
the very first case that happened, and I kept it up through the whole epidemic. On
the 31st July, a systematic disinfection of the gully openings and sewers throughout
the parish, by means of carbolic acid, was commenced, and in this way not only were
the sewers disinfected, and the discharge of noxious exhalations from their openings
in the streets prevented, but where house drains were untrapped, the vapour became
diffused even into them. Wherever cholera happened, a systematic disinfection of
privies and drains in the whole street and neighbourhood, at intervals of a few days,
was kept up, until the epidemic was at an end; labourers being at one time especially
engaged for the purpose. It was upon carbolic acid that I placed my own trust as
the best disinfectant of choleraic matters, as it had been proved to be in the case of
cattle plague in the previous year. It was then the only chemical disinfectant that
we supplied as a rule.
I made it a point, wherever a case of cholera was removed from a house or died,
to direct, personally, what measures of disinfection should be adopted; and where the
clothing or bedding were soiled, unless they were good enough to be preserved, and
such as chemical disinfectants could be satisfactorily applied to, I was in the habit of
directing their destruction by burning. In carrying this out we met with some
difficulties, since, although the articles to be burned were always soaked with carbolic
acid before removal, and thus all danger of infection avoided, we could not obtain a
place in the parish where our officers could destroy them without molestation; and
they had to be carried to Finchley. In some cases it was necessary, in order to
pursue the necessary disinfection, to remove persons from the room where they
resided; and in a few instances I found it necessary to clear entire houses of their
inhabitants. The persons removed were lodged and kept at the expense of the Vestry,
in such lodgings as could be obtained from time to time. In no instance in which
such removal of families was carried out, did any second case occur in them; neither
did a second case occur in any house where the carbolic acid disinfection was carried