SULPHUROUS ACID 333 



hours. It prevents putrefaction of the gelatin used in 

 paper-making, and destroys the effluvia of the cochineal dye 

 manufacture. Its antiseptic properties are shared by the 

 sulphites and thiosulphates. 



MEDICINAL USES. Dewar, Kirkcaldy, greatly extended 

 its application in human medicine and surgery. With 

 solution, fumigation, and spray, he successfully treated nasal 

 catarrh, sore-throat, bronchitis, typhoid fever, as well as 

 wounds. In rheumatism he directed the bed-clothes to be 

 exposed to the vapours of burning sulphur, and laid over 

 the patient, when refreshing perspiration was evoked. In 

 analogous cases amongst the lower animals, sulphurous acid 

 has also proved useful. Robertson employed it to check 

 the muco-purulent discharge of equine influenza. Williams 

 recommended its inhalation in nasal gleet. It is serviceable 

 in catarrh, pharyngitis and laryngitis in horses when the 

 membrane is irritable and relaxed, and the discharges are 

 profuse. It has been prescribed in hoven in cattle and 

 tympanites in horses ; but two-ounce doses of the solution 

 do not give the prompt relief which can be obtained by 

 giving ammonia or ether. In calves, flatulent from hasty 

 or careless feeding, ounce doses, however, arrest undue fer- 

 mentation. For dogs, ll\xxx. to TT[lx., in water, cheek 

 gastric irritation and vomiting. In husk or hoose of calves 

 and lambs the parasites are destroyed by two fumigations 

 made at an interval of a few days. The affected subjects 

 are placed in a loose box ; sulphur is burned six feet distant 

 from them, to dilute the gas before it is breathed ; unless 

 bronchial irritation is excessive, they may remain in the 

 medicated atmosphere ten to fifteen minutes. The solution, 

 used alone or with ' Sanitas ' fluid, or glycerin, is a good 

 antiseptic dressing for wounds. It is useful in the early 

 irritable stage of eczema, especially in dogs. In limited 

 mange, ringworm, and scab the solution is used as a para- 

 siticide. 



Officers of health, both in Britain and America, bear 

 testimony to the efficacy of sulphurous acid as a disinfectant. 

 Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease are believed to have 

 been arrested by it. The gas is readily evolved in the stable 

 or premises to be disinfected by scattering flowers of sulphur 



