_Chlorinated Lime._—In consequence of its powers as a disinfectant,
chlorinated lime is a very important compound in its application
to medical police; it possesses the property of arresting or
preventing animal or vegetable putrefaction, and perhaps of
destroying pestilential and infectious miasma. It is used with
advantage in preventing bodies from exhaling an unpleasant odor
before interment in the summer season. In juridical exhumations its
use is indispensable, as it effectually removes the disgusting and
insupportable fetor of the corpse.
The mode in which it is applied in these cases is, to envelope the
body in a sheet completely wet with a solution made by adding about
one pound of the chloride to a bucketful of water. It is employed
also for disinfecting dissecting rooms, vaults, cemeteries and other
places, which exhale offensive effluvia.
In destroying contagion and infection it appears to be highly
useful. In short, all places deemed infectious from having been the
receptacle of virulent disease may be more or less disinfected by its
use, after having undergone the ordinary process of cleansing.
Chlorinated lime acts exclusively by its chlorine, which, being
loosely combined, is disengaged by the slightest affinities. All
acids, even the carbonic, disengage it; and as this acid is a product
of animal and vegetable decomposition, noxious effluvia furnish
the means, to a certain extent, of their own disinfection. But the
stronger acids disengage it more freely, and amongst these sulphuric
acid is the most convenient. Accordingly, the powder may be dissolved
in a very dilute solution of this acid; or a small quantity of the
acid may be added to an aqueous solution already formed, if a more
copious evolution of chlorine be desired than that which takes place
from the mere action of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere.
The great and only objection, so far, against the use of chlorinated
lime by the profession, has been the strong smell of the chlorine
evolved; but taking into consideration the great antiseptic
properties, and also the strong bleaching and disinfecting qualities
of the chlorine, we find that it cannot be overlooked as an agent of
major importance in the preservation of bodies.
There are certain modes of using the chlorinated lime whereby the
offensive odor can be to a great extent diminished, if not altogether
done away with. When used in its crude state, it will be found
difficult to handle; besides, it could not be used for the purpose of
an injection; it needs, then, a certain amount of preparation before
it be used in a liquid form. The following has been given as the
simplest manner of preparing it for injecting:
Take, of chlorinated lime, one pound, carbonate of soda, two pounds,
water, one gallon; dissolve the carbonate of soda in three pints of
water by the aid of heat; to the remainder of the water add, by small
portions at a time, the chlorinated lime, previously well triturated,
stirring the mixture after each addition. Set the mixture by for
several hours, that the dregs may subside; then decant the clear
liquor, and mix it with the solution of carbonate of soda. Lastly,
decant the clear liquor from the precipitated carbonate of lime, pass
it through a linen cloth, and keep it in bottles secluded from the
light.
The London _Pharmacopœia_ gives a still better process for preparing
it, for reasons which will be given hereafter:
Take, of carbonate of soda, one pound, water, forty-eight fluid
ounces, chloride of sodium (common salt), four ounces, black oxide
of manganese, three ounces, sulphuric acid, two fluid ounces and a
half; dissolve the carbonate of soda in two pints of water; then put
the chloride of sodium and the binoxide or black oxide of manganese,
rubbed to powder, in a retort, and add to them the acid, previously
mixed with three fluid ounces of water, and cooled. Heat the mixture,
and pass the chlorine first through five fluid ounces of water, and
afterwards into the solution of the carbonate above directed. Upon
the addition of muriatic acid, both these solutions emit carbonic
acid and chlorine together.
The foregoing given preparation will be found to answer the purpose
for disinfecting, injecting and preserving corpses. For injecting
purposes, the solution should be used fresh, and the muriatic acid
only added to it, for a more copious liberation of both carbonic acid
and chlorine, when ready to inject the liquid, as the antiseptic
properties of the solution depend altogether on its gaseous
evolutions.
To inject the solution, it will be found that the axillary artery on
the left side is a good point; also, the right jugular vein should
be punctured, so as to facilitate the flow of blood from the head.
But to make the operation complete, and to be sure of a perfect and
thorough injection, the ascending aorta should be injected, and the
inferior vena cava severed at a corresponding point. This mode of
injecting has been described in a former chapter.
It is not possible to specify here the amount of liquid to be
injected; but as a general rule there should be enough of the
solution injected to fill the circulatory system, and the injection
be continued until after the blood has ceased to flow from the wound
in the vena cava and the injecting fluid appears in its place.
When injected with this solution, a corpse may present for a few
hours afterwards a bloated and swollen appearance, and the face and
body may be marbled over with white spots; but these symptoms will
soon disappear, the body will collapse again to its normal size, and
the color become of a uniform shade.
To preserve bodies during the summer season for a few days and
without ice; also to prevent the swelling up of the abdomen and the
purging at the mouth and nostrils, open the stomach, as explained
in a previous chapter, empty out the contents, and inject into it
some of the above solution; the bowels must be treated in the same
manner, and also inject the lungs through the nostrils, by producing
artificial respiration. If the liquid cannot be injected in this
manner, cut into the trachea an incision large enough to admit of
the nozzle of the injector being inserted, and pour in the necessary
quantity.
If any fetor is exhaled from the corpse after being placed in the
coffin, a sponge well saturated with the solution and being placed
at the feet of the corpse will remove all foul effluvia; or better
still, a china or porcelain bowl filled with the solution may be
placed inside the case until a few minutes before the funeral and the
screwing down of the lid.
The air of the room may also be purified by saturating some cloths
with the solution and hanging them in different parts of the
apartment. The vessels containing excretions should not be neglected,
and some of the solution poured into them.
In fact, undertakers will find the above solution to be adapted to
all purposes of disinfecting, deodorizing and preserving corpses.