PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN. 
ago put forward by the Society of Sciences of Haarlem as 
the subject of a medical prize, it has been left to our coun¬ 
trymen to lead the way to the study of the subject in its 
physiological and therapeutical aspects. Dr. Richardson 
has been employed in this research for many months, and 
his observations in relation to the nature of the body in 
question, its formation for therapeutical uses, and its effects 
on animals, are singularly interesting. For instance, he 
showed by experiment that the oxidizing power of the solu¬ 
tion of peroxide is suspended by the presence of all narcotics; 
thus establishing the great law advanced by Snow, that nar¬ 
cotism is suspended oxidation, and that every substance 
which, on being introduced into animals, produces nar¬ 
cotization has the property, either by a negative influence 
or by catalysis, of preventing the union of oxygen with other 
substances with which it is in contact, and for which it has 
an affinity. Again, it was shown that some animal struc¬ 
tures, to say nothing of certain inorganic bodies, on being 
brought into contact with the peroxide in solution, liberate 
the oxygen. Fibrine has this property, and carbonic acid. 
A fish placed in the solution evolved the oxygen with con¬ 
siderable action. Physiologically, the peroxide, on addition 
to venous blood, gives to the blood the arterial character; it 
stimulates the left side of the heart to contraction, but seems 
to stop the action of the right side. Injected into the arteries, 
it restores, for a time, a condition of muscle during which 
contraction occurs on the application of an excitant. It 
also suspends cadaveric rigidity, and further, it prevents the 
spasms of muscle caused by such bodies as ammonia and 
hydrocyanic acid. Therapeutically, peroxide of hydrogen 
offers itself in all cases marked by deficient oxidation. In 
low fevers, as an antidote to various poisons, in tetanus, in 
diabetes, and in cancer. It is only just to say that the intro¬ 
ducer of the remedy specially guarded himself from offering 
any extreme views; he claimed simply that a substance 
possessing such singular properties, physiologically, should 
be used rationally as a medicine in extreme cases for which 
we now have, virtually, no means at command. This is a fair 
mode of putting the matter, and if the peroxide prove 
essential in the cure of but one disease, the physiologists 
may at last rebut the charge that their science does nothing 
for treatment, and that in the midst of their learning thev 
are obliged to leave remedies to the empiric and the wheel of 
fortune. 
