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JOURNAL OF AGRICDLTURAL RESEARCH 



Vol. XX Washington, D. C, October 15, 1920 No. 2 



INVESTIGATIONS OF THE GERMICIDAL VALUE OF 

 SOME OF THE CHLORIN DISINFECTANTS 



By F. W. Tilley, Biochemic Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States 



Department of Agriculture 



SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION 



During the great World War, which from the surgical standpoint was 

 distinguished by the frequency and intensity of wound infections, no 

 class of antiseptics was more extensively employed than the so-called 

 "chlorin antiseptics." When properly used they proved to be of very 

 great value, as may be seen by a perusal of the various publications of 

 Carrel and his colleagues and especially the book by Carrel and 

 Dehelly (2). 1 



In view of the great amount of work already done on the value of 

 these antiseptics in surgery no attempt has been made by the writer to 

 cover that field of work. The experiments herein described were intended 

 to furnish information regarding the value of the chlorin antiseptics for 

 general disinfection. The members of this group actually tested were: 

 (1) chloramin T, (2) Dakin's solution (NaOCl), (3) eusol (HOC1), and 

 (4) chlorin. 



"Chloramin T" is the abbreviated name given by Dakin to sodium- 

 toluene-sulphon-chloramid (4) . It is described as a " white crystalline solid 

 with a faint chlorous odor" containing 12.6 per cent of chlorin and readily 

 soluble in water. The material used in the present work was obtained un- 

 der the trade name "Chlorazene." Its appearance corresponds to the 

 foregoing description, and titration of an aqueous solution with potas- 

 sium iodid and sodium thiosulphate showed it to contain 25 per cent of 

 "available chlorin," which corresponds to 12.5 per cent of actual chlorin, 

 since according to Dakin and Dunham (5) one molecule of chloramin T 

 liberates two atoms of iodin. The explanation they give is that each 

 atom of chlorin in chloramin T is equivalent to a molecule of hypo- 

 chlorous acid, which liberates two atoms of iodin from an acidified iodid 

 solution. 

 c : _ 



1 Reference is made by number (italic) to "Literature cited," p. 110. 



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Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XX, No. 2 



Washington, D. C Oct. 15, 1920 



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