62 Chittenden and Painter—Influence of Therapeutic 
Mercuric chloride. 
Sternberg* places mercuric chloride first in the list of germicides ; 
its presence to the extent of 0:003 per cent. being sufficient to pre- 
vent the development of the micrococcus of pus, while 0°005 per cent. 
destroys the vitality of the same bacterial. organism. 
To our surprise the salt acts even more energetically on the unor- 
ganized ferment of the saliva, as the following results show: 
Total amount Starch 
HzCl2 Wt. Cuin 4. reducing bodies. converted. 
’ 0 0°2385 gram. 04920 gram. 44°28 per cent. 
0°0005 percent. 0:°1277 0°2500 22°50 
00010 0°0925 0:1880 16°92 
0:0020 0°0395 00824 741 
0°0030 0°0060 
0:0040 0 
It is evident that the ferment of saliva is very susceptible to the 
action of this poison, and we have repeated the experiment, using 
still smaller percentages, with the following results: 
Total amount Starch 
HgCle, Wt. Cu in \%. reducing bodies. converted. 
0 0°1635 gram. 0°3340 gram. 30°06 per cent. 
0°0001 percent. 0°1610 0°3288 29°59 
0:0002 071570 0°3204 28°83 
0:0003 0°1545 0°3152 28°36 
The smallest possible addition, therefore, of mercuric chloride dimin- 
ishes the amylolytic power of saliva, in proportion to the amount of 
mercury salt added. 
Mercurie bromide, mercuric iodide and mercuric cyanide. 
These salts of mercury, vigorous in their action as poisons, and 
the two former as germicides likewise, would be expected from 
analogy to act similarly to the chloride. Such we find to be the case 
with the bromide and iodide, but with the cyanide there is to be 
noticed, to a slight extent, an action which we find common to many 
substances, viz: increasing the amylolytic power of the ferment 
* Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences, April, 1883, p, 321. 
For the action of the various salts studied in this work, on the fcgariee ferments, 
see also Marcus and Pinet in Compt. Rend. Soc. de Biolog., 1882, pp. 718-724, or ab- 
stract in Jahresbericht fiir Thierchemie, 1882, p. 515; also Ch. Richet in Compt. Rend., 
vol. xevii, pp. 1004-1006, or in Jahresbericht ftir Thierchemie, 1883, p. 418, and 
Robert Koch, Jahresbericht fiir Thierchemie, 1881, p. 471, N. Jalan de la Croix, 
Jahresbericht fiir Thierchemie, 1881, p. 476. Brunton’s Pharmacology, p. 96, 
