192 SODIUM BIBORATE 



cases the alkaline dressings are alternated with tar, or oil 

 of cade. Leucorrhcea is usually arrested by two or three 

 injections of diluted sodium bicarbonate. A stronger solu- 

 tion abates the pain of burns. 



DOSES, etc. Of the carbonate, horses and cattle take 3JJ- 

 to j. ; sheep and pigs, grs. xxx. to 3ij- ; dogs, grs. v. to 

 grs. xxx. The bicarbonate, although less active than the 

 carbonate, is more convenient for general use, and is given 

 in double these doses, either in bolus or solution. It is 

 frequently given dissolved in the drinking water to dys- 

 peptic, diabetic, or febrile horses. 



BORAX. Sodium Biborate. Sodium Pyroborate. Na 2 B 4 7 . 

 lOAq. 



Borax occurs native in certain Austrian mineral waters, as 

 an incrustation on the edges of various lakes in Thibet and 

 Persia, and in streams in Southern California. As crude 

 borax or tincal, it is imported from Calcutta in greenish 

 pieces, moistened with oil to prevent efflorescence. It is 

 purified by calcining and recrystallising. Borax is now got 

 by calcining together, in proper proportions, boric acid and 

 sodium carbonate. 



In colourless crystals, with a saline, cooling taste, soluble 

 in 17 parts of cold and two of hot water, and in one of 

 glycerin ; insoluble in alcohol. Heated, it melts in its water 

 of crystallisation, and swells into the porous borax usta ; 

 at a red-heat it becomes the transparent glass or anhydrous 

 borax used as a flux. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Borax is antiseptic, parasiticide, 

 diuretic, and alkaline, and is used to relieve irritation of the 

 skin and mucous membranes. By the mouth it exerts its 

 antiseptic and antacid effects in the stomach, but larger doses 

 are irritant and cause vomiting and diarrhoea. Injected into 

 the blood stream toxic doses bring about muscular weakness 

 and collapse. 



It has notable antiseptic powers ; one part in 100 of water 

 arrests the action of emulsin, diastase, and ptyalin ; while 

 one part in 1000 of water prevents the action of rennet ; it 

 requires, however, according to Koch, one part in forty-eight 



