CO129-418 - Public Offices & Others - 1914 — Page 454

447

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"The apparatus having been brought to the front or back of the house and the few preliminaries carried out, such as the sealing of the chimneys and outlets of thehouse, the opening of the drawers and boxes and cupboards, which can be done by one of the household, the covering over with cloths or paper any stuffs or material of delicate colours, and the opening up of floors in the neighbourhood of rat runs, everything is ready for disinfection. As exposure to the gas of wine, fruit and flour in

open bottles, tins or vessels will injure these

articles, they should either be removed or sealed

up in close vessels. Thepipes a d branch vipes are

then fixed and put into the house wherever required, and the gas is pumped into the house and maintained

at a saturation of 12 per cent.for 8 to 12 hours, or

all night, with the result that everything living, whether rats, insects, or the plague bacillus will be destroyed. The windows are then opened in order

to thoroughly ventilate the rooms, and after a few hours the house can be entered and dead rats and

insects removed, after which the rooms are ready for occupation with safety. Disinfection by this method of fumigation saves the necessity of having a central station for steam disinfection and of removing clothes, bedding etc to this central station, everything being disinfected in situ in the house. It dispenses with the complicated procedure now connected with the removal of household goods end with the displacement of everything

in the house in order to cleanse with disinfectants

the