SULPHO-CARBOLATES AND TESTS. 



of inducing the mauve tinge in a ferric solution. The 

 sulpho-carbolates are all very stable compounds. 



Therapeutical Importance. As direct antiseptics the 

 sulpho-carbolates do not occupy a high place. They 

 are far less efficient than many other salts of the 

 metals, especially the chlorides and sulphites. The 

 sodium salt is many times less efficient as an antisep- 

 tic than free carbolic acid itself. The very unstable 

 carbolates possess, for the amount of carbolic acid 

 they contain, equal antiseptic power with carbolic acid 

 itself; not so the sulpho-carbolates, which are com- 

 pounds of great stability. It may be concluded that 

 the direct antiseptic power of carbolic acid in a given 

 compound is inversely as the stability of the compound. 



Comparatively with the other sulpho-carbolates the 

 sodium sulpho-carbolate manifests the chief power in 

 arresting saccharine fermentation. As this salt is, 

 even in a strong solution, exceedingly tasteless, it 

 was chosen for internal administration. 



Two guinea pigs were fed with pills composed of 

 arrowroot mixed with sodium sulpho-carbolate. No 

 other food was given. In four days the little animals 

 consumed 275 grains of the salt. No obvious effect 

 was produced, except a slight looseness of the evacu- 

 ations. The animals were killed and examined; no 

 morbid lesion was found, but the duodenum of one 

 contained an unusual quantity of yellow bile. On 

 chemical examination the muscular tissue, the liver, 

 and the urinary bladder yielded sulphate of sodium ; 



