184 ACTION OF SALTS. 



1 : 5,000 for pathogenic bacteria in the absence of spores; due regard 

 being had to the fact that the presence of albumin very materially 

 reduces its germicidal potency, and that it may be decomposed and 

 neutralized by alkalies and their carbonates, by hydrosulphuric acid, 

 and by many other substances. 



The albuminate of mercury, as has been shown by Lister, is solu- 

 ble in an excess of albumin, and, according to Behring, is just as 

 effective as an aqueous solution containing the same amount of sub- 

 limate when dissolved in an albuminous liquid like blood serum (?). 



In practice the addition of a mineral acid to sublimate solutions, 

 or of sodium, potassium, or ammonium chloride, is to be recom- 

 mended, to prevent the precipitation of the mercuric chloride by al- 

 bumin in fluids containing it. Behring recommends the addition 

 of five parts of sodium or potassium chloride to one of the subli- 

 mate. Such a solution is more stable than a simple solution of sub- 

 limate, and no precipitate is formed by the addition of alkalies or by 

 albumin. 



The same result is obtained, according to La Place, by the addi- 

 tion of five parts of hydrochloric or tartaric acid to one part of sub- 

 limate in aqueous solution, 



Mercuric Cyanide, Hg(CN) 2 , and the Oxycyanide of mercury 

 have been tested, with the following results : Staphylococcus aureus 

 is destroyed in five minutes by 1 : 100, in one hour by 1 : 1,000, in 

 two hours by 1 : 1,500 (Chibret). The development of Bacillus an- 

 thracis in culture solutions is prevented by the presence of cyanide 

 of mercury in the proportion of 1 : 25,000, and by the oxycyanide by 

 1 : 16,000 (Behring). 



Boer obtained the following results with the oxycyanide cul- 

 tures in bouillon, twenty-four hours in incubating oven, time of 

 exposure two hours : 



Mercuric Iodide. The antiseptic value of this salt is placed by 

 Miquel at 1 : 40,000, which is more than double that given by the 

 same author to the bichloride. In the writer's experiments upon the 

 antiseptic value of salts and oxides of mercury the following results 

 were obtained : 



