140 
PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN. 
D. J. Halloran, Hortonville, Wis. ; E. M. Herrin, Highland, Ill. ; 
J. G. Hope, Chicago, Ill. ; E. Jentzsch, Chicago, Ill. ; E. A. 
Johnson, Platteville, Wis. ; M. H. Kyle, Highland, Ill. ; N. W. 
Kyle, Colfax, Ill. ; J. A. McGarry, Milwaukee, Wis. ; W. J. 
Malone, Springdale, Wis. ; F. McCoy, Fake Odessa, Mich. ; C. 
G. Nelson, Chicago, Ill. ; J. H. Pear, Chicago, Ill. ; P A . R. Pierce, 
Dows, la. ; F. P. Scott, Petersburg, Ill. ; Wm. Voss Kiel, Wis. ; 
C. H/JWhitwell, Dubuque, la. ; A. C. Worms, Chicago, Ill. 
PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN. 
By Warren Brown, M.D., Tacoma, Wash. 
Read before the Washington State Medical Society, May, 1895. 
This is usually made by the decomposition of hydrated per¬ 
oxide of barium by sulphuric acid. It is employed in the arts 
for bleaching. The usual commercial article yields about ten 
volumes of oxygen. 
Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, the famous London physi¬ 
cian, who in 1893 received knighthood from Queen Victoria, 
first experimented with peroxide of hydrogen in 1857. It was 
regarded then as a curiosity, and was soon forgotten. Thirty 
years later, Dr. Squibb, of Brooklyn, brought it prominently be¬ 
fore the profession, and since that time it has been used more 
and more each year, until its consumption has reached enormous 
proportions. 
In order to preserve hydrogen peroxide it must be slightly 
acid ; on this account, a disagreeable irritation and smarting 
may be caused by its use on mucous membranes. This can be 
avoided by mixing it fresh at the time it is to be used with 
equal parts of lime water, or spraying with lime water first. 
It effervesces not only with pus, but with blood, serum, 
mucous and cerumen. It is one of our best antiseptics, and it is 
of the greatest value in removing septic clots and enveloping 
fluids before making application of other drugs. 
As a bleaching agent, in skin practice, it is constantly used 
in removing pigmentary stains, and may always be tried before 
resorting to bichloride of mercury in the treatment of freckles 
and chloasma. Discolorations of the skin and nails caused bv 
j 
the aniline dyes, chrysarobin, pyrogallol, sulphur, and perman¬ 
ganate of potash will yield to this excellent bleaching agent. 
Nearly all of the patent hair bleaches on the market contain per¬ 
oxide of hydrogen. 
Gonorrhoea may often be aborted by using a full strength 
