REPORTS OF CASES. 
345 
too poisonous, decomposes rapidly when in contact with 
vegetable matter, and as a bacillicide its value becomes almost 
nihil in the presence ot solutions containing albumen. 
Formalin is a powerful disinfectant, but because of its 
precipitating paraformalin, when evaporated or sprinkled by 
aid of an atomizer, its main use seems to be in the disinfection 
of rooms, closets, clothing, etc., and here it has no equal— 
apparently there being nothing in existence that can impair 
its powerful bactericide properties. 
In seeking after a coal tar derivative that, while stronger 
than carbolic acid, yet would be less poisonous, Prof. Frankel, 
of Marburg, five years ago, drew attention to the cresols. In 
the so-called ioo per cent, crude carbolic acid the most efficient 
principles to which its anti-microbic action is due are not the 
phenols, but the cresols. It would seem, to the initiated, that 
all that is necessary would be the isolation of the latter, but 
they possess one great disadvantage: they are but sparingly 
soluble. But manufacturers at once made the laudable 
attempt to obtain pure and soluble cresols, but these attempts 
resulted only in the impure productions of such substances 
as creolin, lysol, etc., due to a combination of the cresols 
with soap, neutral oil, pyridine, naphthalene, etc. 
Recently Schering, in Berlin, succeeded in producing a 
pure and soluble cresol. There are three cresols to which 
the antiseptic properties of crude carbolic acid are due: 
ortho-meta and para-cresol, which when isolated and pure are 
much easier soluble. 
This new remedy, a combination of the three efficient cre¬ 
sols, is trikresol. It forms a clear, colorless liquid of a pen¬ 
etrating creosote-like odor, and is soluble in cold water in the 
proportion of 2 :100; the solution remaining colorless. Be¬ 
sides its powerful bactericide effect it has the following 
invaluable properties: it does not attack metals, so that 
surgical instruments are not injured by it; vegetable fabrics 
are not discolored by it; it does not produce a slippery con¬ 
dition of the hands when wet with it; it is three times as 
powerful as carbolic acid; it is comparatively non-toxic and 
never creates the numb feeling in the fingers, which has been 
