With regard to disinfectants, it may be well to note that none of the {203} various patent disinfectants are superior to bichloride of mercury, chloride of zinc, sulphate of iron, chlorine, and sulphurous acid; very few are equal to them, and none cost so little. As a gaseous disinfectant for rooms, etc. chlorine is superior to sulphurous acid, but it has the disadvantage of injuring metals, is not so easily applied, and is more costly. It will destroy the vitality of the spores of the bacilli more rapidly and certainly than sulphurous acid, which last, to make sure work, must be exhibited for a much longer period than is customary. I should not feel confident as to the thorough disinfection by sulphurous acid of the hold of an infected ship unless the fumes had been applied for sixty hours. Carbolic acid as ordinarily used is an antiseptic rather than a disinfectant. Its vapor in a sick room is absolutely useless. When applied in strong solution it is effective, for a time at least, but as thus used it is expensive, its odor is unpleasant to many, and masks the odors from putrefying substances and excreta, etc., thus preventing the warning which these odors would give. Its use is in many cases very much like removing the rattle from the rattlesnake. The suggestions made above for limiting the spread of scarlatina from a case to be treated in the residence of the patient apply--with certain modifications for each form of disease, which will readily suggest themselves to the physician--to all the affections due to portable contagia. Among the poorer classes, however, it will often be found impossible to obtain the separate room and service and the constant intelligent care which are necessary to ensure the desired result; and in such a case the patient should be removed to a hospital, for his own sake as well as for that of the community. The utility of small hospitals for infectious diseases is by no means generally understood, and very few of our small cities and towns are provided with anything of the sort. If the subject is urged on the authorities of a place, the reply will be that it is an unnecessary expense, that the people would not go to it, and that such an institution is in itself a source of danger. The facts are, that such a hospital costs very little, and is the cheapest insurance against epidemics which a town can have; if it is kept clean and comfortable, the people will use it freely, and if properly managed it does not offer the slightest danger to the vicinity. This question will be further discussed in the last section of this paper.