Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/141

 DISCOPHOR.E DISINFECTANTS 133 They hence require of candidates for baptism no other confession of faith than this. As to government, each church is independent, but the churches cooperate with each other in sus- taining Bible societies and missionaries at home and abroad. Two classes of officers are rec- ognized, elders or bishops and deacons, who are chosen by the members of each church, and to whom the interests of the congregation are confided. According to a denominational al- manac for the year 1867, the number of mem- bers in the United States was estimated at 424,500, chiefly in the southern and western states, the largest numbers being in Virginia (15,000), Missouri (22,200), Kentucky (75,000), Ohio (52,000), Indiana (70,000), Illinois, (33,- 000), and Iowa (15,500). In 1872 their num- ber was estimated at 500,000. The denomina- tion had in that year one university, the Ken- tucky universitv, at Lexington, Ky. ; colleges at Bethany, West Va. ; Indianapolis, Ind. ; Eureka and Abingdon, 111. ; Oskaloosa, Iowa ; "Wilmington, Ohio ; Franklin, Tenn. ; Woodland, Oal. ; and Jelfersontown and Eminence, Ky. ; female colleges at Columbia, Mo. ; Versailles and Harrodsburg, Ky. ; and Bloomington, 111. ; and 12 academies and seminaries. The periodicals of the denomination were 6 weekly, 2 semi- monthly, 16 monthly, 1 quarterly, and 1 an- nual. The number of Sunday schools was 2,450 with 253,290 scholars. Churches have been established in Canada, the British islands, the West Indies, and Australia ; and the estab- lishment of a mission in Germany was resolved upon in 1871. DISCOPHORJ1. See JELLY FISH. DISCOUNT, a sum of money deducted from a debt due at some future period, in considera- ion of immediate payment. In commercial msactions it is customary, when a bill is to discounted, to pay to the holder or presenter e amount minus the simple interest calcu- lated for the time the bill has to run. Thus a person holding a bill for $100 payable in one year at 7 per cent, would receive $93, which would be considered its present value. The true discount, however, of any sum for any given time, is such a sum as will in that time amount to the interest of the sum to be dis- counted. Thus, in the above instance, the sum to be deducted from the bill would be, not $7, but $6 54 and a fraction, which would amount at the end of a year to $7. The true rule for computing discount would therefore be : As the amount of $100 for the given rate and time is to the given sum or debt, so is $100 to the present worth ; or, so is the interest of $100 for the given time to the discount of the given sum. Elaborate tables have been calculated on this principle, but as abatement of the sim- ple interest is generally resorted to, they are of little practical value. Discount on merchan- dise, somotimes called rebate, is a deduction from the price of goods sold on credit, when the buyer finds means to make his payment before the stipulated time. DISfflFECTANTS, substances used to counter- act or destroy noxious odors and exhalations, or whatever may produce infection. The term is also made to embrace substances used to pre- vent decay of organic bodies. (See ANTISEP- TICS, and EMBALMING.) In the present article disinfectants will be considered as agents for deodorizing and fumigating. As the causes of infection exist in the atmosphere, and are spread over wide districts, disinfectants prop- erly include whatever is used to purify the air, and the term may even be applied to the means employed to prevent the formation of noxious miasmata, as to a proper system of drainage, the destruction by fire of vegetable matter exposed to decay, the thorough ventila- tion of buildings, the provisions for abundant supplies of pure air and light, and the free use of clear water for washing away unclean mat- ters. No more powerful disinfectant exists than the fresh wind, which stirs up the infec- tious vapors, dilutes them with pure air, and sweeps them away. Violent winds, as hurri- canes, are observed to arrest the progress of disease ; efficient ventilation has in many hos- pitals mitigated it to a wonderful extent. The light and warmth of the sun have also an ex- traordinary influence in promoting health and vigor, and destroying some of the causes of injurious exhalations. Other agents are abun- dantly provided by nature which man may employ to remove infectious matters. They may be swept away by running water, or their gaseous emanations be absorbed by the earth in which they are buried. Exposure to heat may change their properties, or cause their elements to enter into new and harmless combinations; or by a freezing temperature decomposition may be arrested, and the for- mation of noisome gases prevented. Peat bogs present their antiseptic qualities as means of accomplishing the same end, and the astrin- gent extracts of the bark of trees, such as are employed in tanning, possess the qualities of disinfectants. In the selection and prepara- tion of these agents, none is found more effi- cient than that which imitates the great natu- ral disinfectant, a strong current of heated air. The method of artificially applying it to the removal of noxious effluvia from clothes and articles of merchandise has been patented in Great Britain ; the articles are exposed in large chambers to rapid currents of air, heated from 200 to 250 F., the infectious matters being decomposed by the heat, or swept off in the hot blasts. Earth and porous bodies generally are employed to absorb injurious vapors ; none possess this property in so remarkable a degree as charcoal. De Saussure found that a single volume of this substance, prepared from box- wood, absorbed 90 volumes of ammonia; of sulphuretted hydrogen it took up 55 times its own bulk ; of carbonic acid, 35 times ; of car- bonic oxide, 9*42; of oxygen, 9'25; of nitro-- gen, 7'50; and of hydrogen, 1-75. Bodies of animals have been buried in charcoal powder,