POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE 187 



spontaneously. The solution also readily evolves oxygen 

 and hence is an effectual bleacher and deodoriser. 



ACTIONS AND USES. The permanganates, in virtue of their 

 power of oxidation, are deodorisers, and also topical stimu- 

 lants. Strong solutions are irritant and caustic. Their 

 power of breaking up various unstable organic substances 

 is further illustrated when they are mixed with the cobra 

 poison, which, thus treated, loses its deadly power, and may 

 with impunity be injected subcutaneously. When an animal 

 has been bitten by a cobra, fifteen minims of a one per cent, 

 solution, injected round the bitten part, is a reliable anti- 

 dote. When swallowed it does not seem to exert the alter- 

 ative or febrifuge effects of the nitrate or chlorate. Concen- 

 trated solutions produce gastro-enteritis. It is an antidote 

 to poisoning by opium. 



Potassium permanganate, although it has not the anti- 

 septic power of corrosive sublimate, effectually destroys 

 bacteria, and Koch found that a five per cent, solution 

 arrested development of the spores of anthrax soaked in it 

 for one day. It is used to deodorise and disinfect foetid 

 wounds, the nostrils in ozaena, the mouth in aphtha, the 

 throat when ulcerated, the uterus in retention of the foetal 

 membranes, and also to cleanse hands and instruments 

 that have been in contact with offensive or contagious 

 matters. As a disinfectant permanganate fails in many 

 cases, because, being non- volatile, it cannot penetrate below 

 the surface. 



Permanganate solutions are frequently placed in shallow 

 vessels about buildings to be deodorised : or cloths, saturated 

 with one part of the fluid to fifty or sixty of water, are sus- 

 pended. But for thorough disinfection such a non-volatile 

 body is not so trustworthy as chlorine, sulphurous acid, or 

 the volatile tar acids. Effectual results are, however, 

 obtained when the permanganates are brought into immedi- 

 ate contact with the injurious organic particles. Thus, four 

 ounces of permanganate added to 100 gallons of stale- 

 smelling, unsightly rain-water left in a foul cistern, usually 

 precipitates all impurities, and after some hours the clarified 

 water becomes sweet and fit for use. The rapidity with 

 which a known quantity of the permanganate solution parts 



