204 ACTION OF COAL-TAR PRODUCTS, 



Euphorin (Phenylurethan) has been tested by Colasanti (1894), 

 who finds that it has rather feeble germicidal activity. 



Formaldehyde (formol, formalin) has very decided germicidal 

 power. According to Pottevin (1894) in the absence of spores a solu- 

 tion of 1 : 1,000 kills bacteria, in comparatively small numbers, in from 

 fifteen minutes to several hours. For the destruction of spores a 

 much stronger solution is required a fifteeii-per-cent solution at 

 15 C. killed anthrax spores in one and one-half hours, and spores 

 of Bacillus subtilis in twenty hours. At higher temperatures the 

 germicidal action is more energetic, and microorganisms exposed to 

 the vapor of formol are very quickly destroyed. Vanderlinden and 

 de Buck (1895) find that solutions of formalin are decidedly inferior 

 to corresponding solutions of carbolic acid, creolin, or solveol, and are 

 too irritating to be used in surgical practice. They report that a 

 solution of five per cent failed to destroy their test organisms- 

 Bacillus coli communis, Bacillus typhi abdominalis, Staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus. Experiments made by Reed, at the Army Medical 

 Museum in Washington, show that the diphtheria bacillus and other 

 test organisms are quickly killed by formalin vapor. 



Glycerin has no action upon the virus of symptomatic anthrax 

 (Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas), and is inert as regards the spores 

 of anthrax (Koch). Glycerin prevents putrefactive decomposition in 

 bouillon when present in the proportion of 1 :-4 (Miquel). Roux has 

 shown that the addition of five per cent of glycerin to a culture 

 medium is favorable to the growth of the tubercle bacillus; it is also 

 appropriated as pabulum by various other species. 



Guaiacol. Kuprianow, as a result of extended experiments with 

 this agent (1894), reports that it ranks below cresol and carbolic acid 

 as a germicide. In the proportion of 1 : 500 it restrains the develop- 

 ment of the cholera spirillum, and the author named suggests its in- 

 ternal administration in this disease on account of its non-toxic and 

 non-irritant properties. 



Hydroxylamin. Heinisch found that the development of the 

 anthrax bacillus is prevented by 1 : 77 of hydroxylamin hydro- 

 chlorate, and of the diphtheria bacillus by 1 : 75. In these experiments 

 a solution of soda was added to release the hydroxylamin. Marp- 

 mann found that 1 : 100 preserved milk without change for four 

 to six weeks, and that alkaline fermentation of urine was prevented 

 by 1:1,000. 



IchthyoL Latteux (1892) reports that the various pathogenic 

 bacteria used by him as test organisms were killed by a five-per-cent 

 solution (time ?) with exception of Streptococcus pyogenes, which 

 required a six to seven-per-cent solution. The more recent experi- 

 ments of Abel (1893) gave less favorable result, but the agent was 



