BORIC ACID 347 



in the blood it is transformed into borate of soda. Small 

 doses produce no appreciable effect on circulation or respira- 

 tion ; but large doses (1 gramme per kilogramme of live 

 weight) cause gastro-enteritis, with nausea, vomiting, 

 muscular feebleness, albuminuria, and collapse. These 

 symptoms may follow the injection of strong solutions into 

 wounds, or into the uterus. It is occasionally prescribed in 

 fermentative diarrhoea in foals, calves, and dogs, but 

 estimation of the aromatic sulphates in the urine, the measure 

 of intestinal putrefaction, shows that it has little effect on 

 this. In weak solution it is useful for washing out the 

 stomach and for douching wound cavities after operations. 

 It is excreted in the saliva, sweat, and urine, and exerts 

 slight antiseptic effects in cystic catarrh. 



As an antiseptic it is much less powerful than carbolic acid. 

 Koch found that one part in 1250 of water hindered, and 

 one part in 800 prevented, development of anthrax bacillus. 

 The carcase of a horse, which had lain four months in a 

 Californian soil rich in borax, was completely preserved and 

 free from odour (Robottom). It is used for the preservation 

 of milk, fish, and other articles of food. Being non- volatile, 

 its effects are confined to the parts with which it comes into 

 actual contact. Even in concentrated form, it is not so 

 irritant and caustic as carbolic acid, and hence is adapted 

 for wounds which for some time have been treated with 

 carbolic acid, and in which granulation has become tardy. 

 A foul wound or ulcer of moderate size, after thorough 

 washing with corrosive sublimate or zinc chloride, or 

 repeated dressing with carbolic acid, may usually be kept 

 aseptic by boric acid. Extensive wounds as those of the 

 withers and poll after operation may be stuffed with crystal- 

 lised boric acid, which acts as a powerful antiseptic (Busy). 

 A warm 3 per cent, solution has been used to irrigate the 

 chest in septic pleurisy. In the form of lotion or ointment, 

 spread on gauze or lint, it proves a soothing dressing for 

 burns and blistered surfaces ; as a spray, it relieves aphthous, 

 irritable, ulcerated throat, and, like borax, checks excessive 

 salivary or pharyngeal secretion. Alternated with weak 

 alkaline lotions or zinc oxide dressings, boric acid, con- 

 veniently mixed with six or eight parts of starch and one 



