ANov?mbe?hia9™'  }    Dakin  or  Carrel-Dakin  Solution.  497 
THE  DAKIN  OR  CARREL-DAKIN  SOLUTION. 
By  Ivor  Griffith,  P.D. 
Sodium  hypochlorite,  which  is  the  chemical  to  which  the  anti- 
septic irrigating  solution,  known  as  the  Dakin  or  Carrel-Dakin 
solution,  owes  its  activity,  was  discovered  by  Berthollet,  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Labarraque,  another  French  chemist, 
won  considerable  renown,  when  he  successfully  used  a  solution  of 
this  chemical  to  embalm  and  deodorize  the  body  of  Louis  the 
XVIII,  after  it  had  been  allowed,  to  partially  decay.  The  solution 
which  he  used  and  which  afterwards  bore  his  name  is  still  used  for 
a  variety  of  technical  purposes,  chiefly  as  a  bleach  and  disinfectant. 
At  the  commencement  of  hostilities  in  Europe,  scientists  and  sur- 
geons turned  to  it  and  other  chlorine  compounds  with  the  hope  of 
finding  among  them  the  "philosopher's  stone"  of  modern  surgery, 
or  in  other  words,  the  perfect  germicide,  search  for  which  has  been 
carried  on  ever  since  the  dawn  of  the  new  era  which  Lister  and 
Pasteur  inaugurated.  Dr.  LeConte  very  simply  defines  this  "  per- 
fect surgical  germicide,"  in  this  sentence.  "  It  must  kill  all  parasitic 
life  while  causing  no  harm  to  any  cell  of  the  living  body." 
The  proposition  of  finding  such  a  germicide  presented  itself  in  a 
most  convincing  manner  to  the  surgeons  of  Europe  when  the  endless 
array  of  mutilated  and  mangled  soldiers  poured  into  the  field  and 
base  hospitals  of  northern  France,  with  virulently  infected  wounds 
of  such  a  character  that  demanded  treatment  distinctly  different 
from  that  resorted  to  in  civil  surgery.  Experimentation  with 
Labarraque's  and  similar  chlorine  combinations  soon  established  the 
fact  that  such  compounds  could  not  be  safely  used  in  surgery.  They 
proved  to  be  destructive  to  the  tissue  by  reason  of  their  high  alkali 
content  and  irritating  on  account  of  their  high  chlorine  content. 
Continued  study  and  experimentation,  however,  resulted  in  the 
introduction  of  what  is  now  referred  to  as  Dakin's  original  solution. 
H.  D.  Dakin,  a  chemist  on  the  staff  of  the  Herter  laboratory,  New 
York,  who  was  in  France  with  the  Rockefeller  research  institute, 
developed  a  solution  which  with  a  little  modification  has  partially 
solved  the  problem  of  prevention  and  control  of  bacterial  infection 
in  surgical  practice.  Dr.  Alexis  Carrel,  also  of  the  Rockefeller  In- 
stitute, evolved  a  method  of  continuous  irrigation  of  wounds  by 
means  of  Dakin  solution,  which  has  proven  to  be  of  tremendous 
significance.    The  original  Dakin  solution  involved  the  use  of  boric 
