300 MERCURIC CHLORIDE SOLUTIONS 



by emetics (avoiding common salt), the stomach pump, or 

 syphon. 



MEDICINAL USES. For internal use, milder mercurials are 

 preferred, and it is dangerous to use it for the production of 

 the alterative effects of mercury. For horses it has been 

 prescribed in chronic skin eruptions, and swollen, cedematous 

 legs resulting from repeated attacks of lymphangitis. Half 

 or even a quarter of a grain, repeated every three hours, 

 sometimes arrests the slimy, bloody, reducing discharges of 

 persistent diarrhrea and dysentery in cattle. Conjoined 

 with opium, hemlock, and salines, it has been advised in 

 rheumatism. 



As an effectual antiseptic it is used for many surgical 

 purposes. Its antiseptic power is diminished or destroyed 

 in presence of albumin, with which it forms an insoluble 

 albuminate. To prevent this change Laplace suggested the 

 addition of tartaric acid to sublimate lotions. Fifteen grains 

 of corrosive sublimate, seventy-five grains of tartaric acid and 

 thirty-five ounces of distilled water, form a useful antiseptic 

 solution. Foul wounds washed with one part mercuric 

 chloride dissolved in 500 to 1000 of water, are rendered 

 aseptic. Instruments, sponges, towels, as well as the hands, 

 are disinfected by washing in a one to a thousand solution. 

 But sublimate lotions damage most metal instruments, and 

 irritate and roughen the operator's hands. Solutions of 

 average strength destroy the fungi of ringworm, kill lice, 

 and acari, and allay the itching of urticaria. For the last- 

 named disease Robertson prescribed mercuric chloride grs. 

 xii., diluted hydrocyanic acid ^iv., glycerin 39 > an( l water 

 x. A solution of one part in 1000 or 2000 of water is 

 injected into the uterus in metritis, and in cases of abortion. 

 The spread of contagious abortion may be prevented by 

 washing with the solution, twice daily, the external genital 

 organs and the tail of aborted cows. Warm solutions 

 are much more active than cold. An aqueous solution of 

 one part in 500 is used to arrest necrosis in bone and cartilage, 

 and 10 to 15 grains rolled in tissue paper (or a sublimate 

 crayon), and introduced deeply into sinuses or fistulse 

 in four to eight days, slough out the fibrous walls. As a 

 synovial styptic, sublimate in fine powder is applied to the 



