Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1 918. 
American-Made  Indigo. 
445 
pounds,  which  have  been  studied  by  Chattaway,  Langfield,  and  later 
by  Dakin,  chlorine  displaces  the  hydrogen  attached  to  the  nitrogen, 
giving  compounds  containing  the  group  NO. 
These  substances  give  the  reactions  for  free  chlorine  and  are 
themselves  antiseptics  of  considerable  value.  As  they  are  formed 
in  the  wound  or  in  the  blood  stream  in  intravenous  injection,  and 
may  continue  to  exist  as  such  for  some  time,  they  may  prove  to 
have  an  important  bearing  on  the  reactions  of  the  body.  They 
ultimately  break  down  to  aldehydes,  nitriles,  carbon  dioxide,  am- 
monia, etc.  Work  on  these  compounds  as  antiseptics  has  been  car- 
ried out  by  H.  D.  Dakin13  and  others  working  in  Professor  Cohen's 
laboratory  at  Leeds,  and  two  chloramine  antiseptics  have  been  pre- 
pared and  are  now  in  extensive  use.  They  are  known  as  chloramine  T, 
which  is  p-toluene  sodium  sulphochloramide,  CH3C6H4S02NaNCl, 
and  dichloramine  T,  toluene-p-sulphodichloramine,  CH3C6H4S02- 
NC12  The  former  is  soluble  in  water  and  is  used  in  a  strength  of 
0.5  per  cent.  The  dichloramine  is  insoluble  but  dissolves  in  eucalyp- 
tol,  which  is  then  diluted  with  paraffin  oil. 
In  the  exigencies  of  war  surgery  a  large  variety  of  antiseptics, 
including  several  synthetic  dyes,  have  been  tested,  but  the  general 
conclusion  seems  to  be  that  hypochlorous  acid,  one  of  the  oldest 
antiseptics,  still  remains  the  most  reliable  for  general  wound  treat- 
ment. 
In  eusol  the  full  value  of  hypochlorous  acid  is  available  without 
the  drawbacks  inherent  in  the  earlier  solutions  containing  this  potent 
reagent.14 
AMERICAN-MADE  INDIGO.1 
Indigo,  the  key  to  the  dye  situation  in  this  country,  now  is  being 
produced  in  commercial  quantities  and  the  solution  of  the  American 
dye  problem — acute  since  the  imports  from  Germany  were  cut  off — 
has  been  found.  Not  only  is  America  now  independent  of  Ger- 
many but  we  rapidly  are  moving  into  a  position  to  hold  the  dye  trade 
of  the  world  after  the  war. 
13  Dakin  and  others,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  1916,  B.  89,  232,  and  B.  M.  J.,  1917, 
1,  865. 
14  For  clinical  trials  with  eusol  see  Lancet,  February  5  and  12,  1916. 
1  From  Publicity  Bureau,  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co. 
