Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1918. 
Antiseptics. 
439 
number  of  bacteria  exposed  to  the  action  of  the  antiseptic  in  the 
test  tube,  has  a  very  important  bearing  on  the  efficiency.  The 
presence  of  organic  matter  other  than  the  bacteria  with  blood  serum, 
whole  blood,  pus,  muscle  extract,  etc.,  have  been  employed  to  re- 
produce as  far  as  possible  conditions  likely  to  be  met  with  in  a 
wound.  For  our  tests  we  decided  to  use  pieces  of  heavily  infected 
tissues  which  were  exposed  for  definite  periods  to  a  large  volume  of 
the  antiseptic  solution.  The  tissue  after  treatment  was  washed  free 
of  the  antiseptic  with  successive  quantities  of  sterile  water,  and  in 
cases  where  it  was  deemed  necessary,  any  residual  antiseptic  was 
neutralized  by  appropriate  chemical  methods.  The  tissue  was  then 
put  into  a  tube  of  sterile  broth  and  incubated ;  readings  were  taken 
at  24,  48,  and  72  hours. 
The  antiseptics  tested  were  those  in  use  at  the  military  hospitals 
in  Edinburgh  and  others  which  have  been  more  or  less  in  general  use : 
they  were  phenol,  acrosyl,  kymol,  chinosol  (oxyquinoline  potassium 
sulphonate),  hydrogen  peroxide,  mercuric  iodide,  tincture  of  iodine, 
potassium  permanganate  4  per  cent.,  methylated  spirit,  turpentine, 
salicylic  acid,  sodium  salicylate,  methyl  salicylate  (oil  of  winter- 
green),  glycerin,  bleaching  powder,  bleaching  powder  and  hydrogen 
peroxide  (for  nascent  oxygen),  eau  de  Javelle,  boric  acid.  Our 
test  proved  very  drastic:  of  the  above  only  bleaching  powder,  10 
per  cent,  solution,  eau  de  Javelle  (10  per  cent,  sodium  hypochlorite), 
5  per  cent,  phenol,  and  the  mixture  of  bleaching  powder  and  hy- 
drogen peroxide  had  any  effect  in  delaying  or  inhibiting  growth, 
and  the  first  two  were  decidedly  ahead  of  the  others.  The  hypo- 
chlorites were  thus  proved,  as  has  often  happened  before,  to  be  the 
strongest  antiseptics  in  general  use.  There  are  other  points  de- 
cidedly in  their  favor.  Bleaching  powder  is  cheap,  easily  procured 
anywhere,  and  above  all  it  cannot  be  classed  as  a  dangerous  poison. 
On  the  other  hand  pure  liquor  calcis  chlorinatse  and  eau  de  Javelle 
are  very  drastic  remedies  and  on  account  of  their  strong  alkalinity 
and  high  chlorine  content  (about  3  per  cent,  available  chlorine) 
the  tissues  will  not  stand  their  continued  application :  for  this  reason 
they  have  never  come  into  general  use,  though  they  have  both  been 
used  with  great  success  on  occasion.  For  instance  in  1846  Semel- 
weiss,  an  Austrian  physician,  stamped  out  an  epidemic  of  sepsis  in 
his  hospital  in  Vienna  by  using  bleaching  powder.  Pasteur  used 
liquor  calcis  chlorinatse,  and  I  am  informed  by  Sir  James  Russell 
that  when  he  was  a  medical  student  in  this  university  Professor 
