BIOLOGY'. 255 



external application of iodine and its preparations is so serious that 

 physicians are often compelled to abandon a remedy the thera- 

 peutic efficacy of which is undoubted, na} 7 , almost unequalled in 

 materia medica. The great objection to the external use of this 

 remedy is, that it leaves marks both on the linen and on the skin. 

 This is a sufficient motive for seeking some means of getting rid 

 of this drawback, especially in the case of ladies. Dr. Percy 

 Boulton's method consists in adding a few drops of phenic (car- 

 bolic) acid to the iodine solution to be employed. This addition 

 renders iodine perfectly colorless, so that it may be applied with 

 impunity. But this combination has another advantage. It ap- 

 pears from that practitioner's observations, which I can confirm, 

 that, so administered, carbolate of iodine, which is the new sub- 

 stance in question, is not only one of the most powerful antiseptics 

 we possess, but is intrinsically a more efficacious agent than iodine 

 alone. I have used this compound under the form of injections, 

 gargles, and lotions, in all cases in which iodine is prescribed. In 

 sore throat, ozsena, abscess in the ear, etc., this preparation is a 

 sovereign remedy, since, besides its disinfecting qualities, it mod- 

 ifies the mucous membrane, causes all local sensibilit} 7 to disap- 

 pear, and cures the patient much sooner than if either of the two 

 agents were employed separately. The formula I employ is as 

 follows : Compound tincture of iodine, 3 gms. ; pure liquid car- 

 bolic acid, 6 drops ; glycerine, 30 gms. ; distilled water, 150 gins." 



ACTION OF POISONS. 



The Poison of the Cobra-de-Capello. The " Melbourne Argus," 

 for April 26, contains an article by Dr. G. B. Halford, from which 

 we extract the following: "The melancholy accident which so 

 lately happened with the cobra-de-capello induced me to make 

 some experiments and observations upon the action of the reptile's 

 poison. When a person is mortally bitten by the cobra-de-capello, 

 molecules of living ' germinal ' matter are thrown into the blood, 

 and speedily grow into cells, and as rapidly multiply ; so that, in 

 a few hours, millions upon millions are produced at the expense, 

 as far as I can at present see, of the oxygen absorbed into the 

 blood during inspiration ; hence the gradual decrease and ulti- 

 mate extinction of combustion and chemical change in every other 

 part of the body, followed by coldness, sleepiness, insensibility, 

 slow breathing, and death. The cells, which thus render in so 

 short a time the blood unfit to support life, are circular, with a di- 

 ameter on the average of one seventeen-hundredth of an inch. 

 They contain a nearly round nucleus of one two-thousand-ei'rht- 

 hundredth of an inch in breadth, which, when further magnified, 

 is seen to contain other still more minute spherules of living 

 * germinal ' matter. In addition to this, the application of ma- 

 genta reveals a minute colored spot at some part of the circumfer- 

 ence of the cell. This, beside its size, distinguishes it from the 

 white pus or lymph corpuscle. Thus, then, it would seem that, as 

 the vegetable cell requires for its growth inorganic food and the 

 liberation of oxygen, so the animal cell requires for its growth 



