Lysol

Article About the New Disinfectant
in The International Journal of Surgery (1890)
citing Wiener Medizinishe Wochentchrift

(source)

At the meeting of the Society of Physicians of Vienna, May 23, 1890, Dr. V. Gerlach spoke of a new disinfectant, lysol, derived from tar oils by boiling with alkalies and fats. Comparative tests as to the germicidal powers of lysol, carbolic acid, sulphurous acid, and creolin upon the spores of anthrax bacilli, the staphylococcus pyogenes, and cocci of erysipelas showed the former to be possessed of special advantages. Lysol appears to be perfectly innocuous, and has been administered subcutaneously to rabbits in amountsof half a drachm daily during fourteen days without causing death. It has been successfully employed in surgical operations, and for vaginal and uterine irrigation. On wounds it has no irritant effects, but when applied to mucous surfaces in 1-2 per cent. solutions it causes slight transient burning. A 0.3 per cent. is sufficient to destroy all the organisms present in wounds within thirty seconds, and a 1 per cent. solution is a good general antiseptic. In 3 per cent. solutions, it has the properties of a soap, and acts as an excellent disinfectant of the hands.— Wiener Medizinishe Wochentchrift, No. 22, 1890. [P.J.R.]

Lysol

from Scientific American (1892)

Attention having been drawn by the recent cholera “scare” to the popularity of carbolic acid as a disinfectant, notice is being taken in medical circles of the even superior advantages for many purposes of the cresols as disinfectants. It was discovered that crude carbolic acid made soluble by the action of sulphuric acid surpassed in germicidal power an equally strong solution of pure phenol, besides which creolin, although free from carbolic acid, was proved to be of unmistakably superior disinfecting activity to the latter. Being insoluble in water, however, these cresols were neglected until the idea was hit upon of combining them with resin soap. Although very efficacious, these preparations were only emulsions; and it remained for the cresols to be made soluble, as now in the form of lysol, in order that what can be called the ideal soluble disinfectant should be made generally available.

Lysol is produced by dissolving in fat, and subsequently saponifying, with the addition of alcohol, the fraction of tar oil which boils between 190° and 200° Cent. It is a brown, oily-looking, clear liquid, with a feebly aromatic creosote-like odor. It contains 50 per cent of cresols; and it is miscible with water to a clear, saponaceous, frothing fluid. It shows turbidity when mixed with hard water; but its disinfectant quality is not impaired thereby. It acts, to all intents and purposes, as a soap; and it is admirably adapted for use in surgical operations. According to German testimony, lysol is one of the most precious products of coal tar which chemistry has given to the service of mankind.

Lysol

from Disinfection and Disinfectants (1895)

Lysol, prepared by Schulke and Mayr, of Hamburg, is a brown transparent syrupy fluid which turns litmus blue “but contains no free alkali.” The ash is about 6 per cent. and is mainly carbonate of potash. Lysol contains about 51 per cent. of volatile oils, consisting of higher phenols, and no carbolic acid. It is miscible with water in all proportions, hence it can be used of any strength. Dr. Schottelius‡ gives the minimum effective strength of the following in per cents.:

Pearson’s kreolin (Jeyes) was used. Lysol of ·33 per cent. destroyed in twenty minutes cholera and typhus bacilli.§ The English patent for lysol|| describes it as “tar oil mixed with a fat or fatty oil, and saponified with alkali in presence of alcohol. Homogeneous and soluble.”

Lysol is thus a mixed disinfectant produced by dissolving in fat, and subsequently saponifying, with the addition of alcohol, the fraction of tar oil which boils between 190° and 200° C. (practically the cresols, excluding almost all the less soluble xylenols, &c.). It is a brown, oily-looking, clear liquid, with a feebly aromatic creosote-like odour. It contains 50 per cent. of cresols and is miscible with water to a clear saponaceous, frothing fluid. It shows turbidity when mixed with hard water from the formation of the well-known precipitate of lime and magnesia soaps, but its disinfectant quality is not impaired thereby. It acts to all intents and purposes as a soap; and seems well adapted for use in surgical operations. Lysol forms a clear solution with alcohol, glycerine, &c.

It removes all dirt, fatty and resinous spots from the skin, as well as from linen, instruments, and the like.* To remove the soapy feeling, the hands may be rinsed in sterilised water, and dried with a sterilised towel.

Gerlach and Simmonds tried it on infected fæces with success. Cramer and others recommend it for surgery. From these reports lysol appears to be an efficient preparation for surgical purposes, but its mode of preparation would seem to make it too expensive for use in large quantities for public disinfection.

Excerpts from Devices and Desires (2002)

by Andrea Tone

[p.170] Marketed under the proprietary name Lysol since the 1890s, the disinfectant, first used for medical antisepsis, was popularized in the second decade of the twentieth century by Lehn & Fink’s advertising blitz, which targeted women and highlighted the product’s versatile disinfectant properties. Lysol was a caustic poison and in more concentrated form was retailed with a prominent skull-and-crossbones icon. Ingested, it could kill; applied externally, it irritated and burned. Lehn & Fink sold it for feminine hygiene anyway, ignoring a recommendation made by the 1912 Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the AMA that companies not advertise to the laity disinfectants, germicides, and antiseptics for application to the eye, gastrointestinal tract, or genitourinary tract.

By [p.171] 1911, doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings, including 21 suicides, 1 homicide, and 5 deaths from uterine irrigation. In 1915, a Chicago man killed his wife, who had just given birth to their child, when, confusing Lysol with her regular medicine, he gave her the toxic substance to drink. As Lysol became more commercially widespread, injury and death rates grew. Coroners in New York City reported 40 suicidal and 4 accidental Lysol deaths in 1925 alone.

Advertising downplayed the potential for injury by drawing attention to antiseptics’ claimed gentleness and versatility. Ads praising Lysol’s safety on “delicate female tissues” also encouraged the money-wise consumer to use the antiseptic as a gargle, nasal spray, household cleaner, and dressing for burns.

There were other egregiously wrong personal uses resulting in injuries and deaths, which are plainly described in the book above, from which an interested reader can learn more — and gasp. In its early years, the company advertising was silent on them.

In the late 1930s the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which regulated product advertising to promote fair business practices began to crack down.

Fortunately, since the early 1950s, cresol has been replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, and now the Lysol brand is respected as a primarily surface care brand, for uses such as a germicide for cleaning bathrooms and kitchens.

On 23 April 2020, the highest U.S. national political official bungled dangerously with profound stupidity, when he said on camera about Covid-19 infections, “I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. … Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.” Later the next day, trying to quell the resulting outcry, he claimed his words were “sarcastic.” Many people, however, didn’t detect any sarcasm whatsoever. Words have consequences.

The current manufacturer of Lysol and Dettol, Reckitt Benckiser, quickly responded definitively,

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

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