Some complained of sore throats, contracted,
they said, from the fumes of the disinfectant, and declared that the
remedy, like vaccination, was only a mitigated form of the disorder. The
landlords of our studies looked on with irresolute wonder, when some of
us sprinkled their floors with a potent decoction poured from watering-
pots. Most of them regarded it as a kind of magical rite into which it
would not be seemly to inquire. In one house a practical seaman, late
home from a cruise, took a less reverent view of the lustration, and
uttered hints of what he would do to the perpetrators' heads if their
acid touched his carpets again. Probably the best disinfectant applied
was the clear strong wind, which ten days after the first case succeeded
the previous relaxing weather. All windows and doors were ordered wide
open for the free passage of the blast; and the boys were directed to
bring down their rugs, great-coats, and dressing-gowns, and anything of
the kind which might be supposed to harbour mischief, and spread them for
purification on the pebbles of the beach.
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