THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
SEPTEMBER,  1864. 
PERMANGANATE  OF  POTASSA. 
By  Edward  R.  Squibb,  M.  D.,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
During  the  past  few  years  Permanganate  of  Potassa  has  been 
steadily  acquiring  importance  as  a  therapeutic  agent,  and  the 
number  of  its  useful  applications  has  so  extended  as  to  gain  for 
it  admission  into  both  our  own  and  the  British  Pharmacopoeia. 
Since  May,  1863,  however,  it  has  acquired  a  new  importance, 
from  its  application  to  the  treatment  of  Hospital  Gangrene ; 
and,  within  the  past  four  months,  the  demand  for  it  by  the 
Government  for  the  Army  Hospitals,  could  not  be  supplied, 
although  application  has  been  made  to  most,  if  not  to  all  the 
prominent  manufacturing  chemists  of  the  country. 
Prof.  Samuel  Jackson,"  of  Philadelphia,  (see  Amer.  Joum, 
Med.  Sciences,  for  January,  1864,  p.  98,  et.  seq.,)  in  search 
for  new  applications  for  this  salt,  suggested  its  use  in  gangren- 
ous wounds,  to  his  friend,  Dr.  F.  Hinkle,  formerly  of  Marietta, 
Pa.,  but  then  an  Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  in  the  army,  on 
duty  at  the  Campbell  General  Hospital,  Washington.  Dr, 
Hinkle  adopted  the  suggestion,  and  first  applied  it  to  the  treat- 
ment of  Hospital  Gangrene,  in  May,  1863,  with  success.  Sub- 
sequently he  extended  its  application  to  the  same  disease  in  the 
Jarvis  General  Hospital,  Baltimore,  under  charge  of  Surgeon 
De  Witt  C.  Peters,  U.  S.  A.,  and  published  the  results  in  the 
Amer.  Med.  Times,  Vol.  VII.,  Nos.  XXII  and  XXIII.,  pp. 
254  and  265.  The  results  obtained  in  this  hospital  are  endorsed 
by  Surgeon  Peters,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Amer.  Med. 
Times,  Vol.  VII.,  No.  XXIII.,  p.  266,  and  were  deemed  of 
25 
