Another somewhat older-fashioned way of chemically tearing germ cells apart involves alcohol. When applied topically directly on the skin--alcohol kills nearly everything, germ-wise, by destroying the cell walls of typical germs.

Try this: Put a drop of water on wax paper. Dip the tip of a toothpick in rubbing alcohol. Touch the tip to the edge of the water drop. In a moment, the water drop will lose its shape. Its surface tension will be greatly weakened, and it will fall apart. So it goes with germs on your skin. Their cell walls are destroyed by the strong pull of alcohol's chemistry. Alcohol hand sanitizers are very effective for this reason. Most of them are alcohol mixed with hand lotion. Not bad, antiseptic rather than antibiotic. But once a germ is inside you, infecting you, you can't possibly get the concentration of alcohol in your system high enough to kill germs without killing yourself.