TER-CHLORIDE OF CARBON. 
267 
ART. LXIV. — ON THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF A 
LIQUID SOLD UNDER THE NAME OF TER-CHLORIDE OF 
CARBON. 
By Alexander Ure, Esq. 
In the London Lancet of July 15, 1843, is a paper by 
E. W. Tuson,Esq., F. R. S., Surgeon to the Middlesex Hos- 
pital, "On the Effect of the Ter-Chloride of Carbon." That 
gentleman states its having proved beneficial in relieving the 
pain, and destroying the fetor of the discharge, of cancerous 
sores, besides producing other peculiar effects of an advan- 
• tageous nature. He further extols its employment in cases 
of senile gangrene, sloughing ulcer, uterine and neuralgic 
affections, and in some instances of severe sickness after the 
usual remedies had failed. "It allays nervous irritability, 
removes anxiety of mind, invigorates and raises the spirits, 
and where patients have one day been in a state of complete 
misery, they have on the following one become happy and 
joyful from its effects." 
"The ter-chloride of carbon," continues Mr. Tuson, "is 
a clear transparent fluid, smelling strongly of chlorine, as its 
name implies ; it consists of three parts of chlorine and one 
of carbon, the dose from one to four drops in water, two or 
three times a day ; one to two drachms to a pint of water as 
an injection or lotion." 
Not being acquainted with any ter-chloride having the 
composition above assigned, or of any mere compound of 
chlorine and carbon, which is soluble in water, I was induced 
for information to refer to the work of Berzelius. In vol. i. 
p. 131, of the Brussels edition, we find described : — 
1. A combination of one atom of carbon with three atoms 
of chlorine. This is a solid substance devoid of color or 
taste. Its specific gravity is nearly twice that of water. It 
enters into fusion at 320°, and boils at 356° Fahr. It does 
