n off, then about four gallons of water
should be added to each gallon of the powder and the mixture well
stirred. This will probably always leave some lime in the bottom of the
vessel, since limewater is a saturated solution, and these proportions
furnish more lime than is necessary. If not too thin, it is a good
whitewash and is a most important agent when used as a whitewash in
disinfecting walls and ceilings of such rooms as hospitals and cellars
and other places where have been contagious diseases. Milk of lime is an
admirable disinfectant in the sick room and generally in houses where
infectious diseases have been. It may be poured down drains, into
water-closets and privies, and used liberally in all places where
bacteria may be supposed to thrive. It must come into intimate contact,
however, with the bacteria, and merely sprinkling a little lime dry
around the borders of a gutter or drain is of no value. The writer saw,
not long ago, a chicken yard where the inspector of a health department
had undertaken to secure disinfection by a generous sprinkling of white
lime powder around the yard. Such a procedure, however, is not
effective, but in a drain the dry powder might be of value because it
would later become effective when washed in solution into the drain.
Ordinarily, the dry powder is to be avoided.

_Soap as an antiseptic._

No better antiseptic exists than ordinary soap, not altogether because
of the properties of the soap, but because of the action of the soap
combined with hot water. Washing soda, dissolved in water and used for
boiling clothes which have become polluted, adds to the disinfecting
power of the hot water the disinfecting properties of the soap, and the
result is most effective. Ammonia has not the same value as the soda or
potash soap, although it has the power of destroying bacteria in the
course of a few hours.

It may not be out of place to emphasize the value of soap, not
particularly in times of epidemic or contagious disease, but as a
continual safeguard against infection. A large proportion of the
contagious diseases are probably the result of infected fingers or hands
coming in contact with the mouth and leaving there the germs of
infection. One of the first things a surgeon learns, in order to avoid
any possible infection of wounds or of openings which he makes for an
operation, is to thoroughly wash his hands in order to remove therefrom
all possible germs. He scrubs his hands