492  Notes  mi  Carbolic  Acid.  {^^Nori'.mL 
From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  polygonum  hydropiper  contains 
an  acid,  crystallizable,  coloring  principle  upon  which  the  medicinal 
virtues  of  the  drug  mainly  depend. 
'  NOTES  ON  CARBOLIC  ACID. 
By  William  C.  Bakes. 
Few  substances  have  acquired  greater  popularity,  and  given  such 
general  satisfaction  as  carbolic  acid.  For  a  long  time  it  was  exclu- 
sively used  by  the  medical  profession,  but  the  public  having  heard 
of  its  antiseptic  and  disinfectant  properties  have  adopted  it  in  various 
forms  as  one  of  their  household  requisites. 
Its  use  as  a  remedial  agent  dates  from  1859,  when  M.  Le  Beuf,  of 
Bayonne,  France,  employed  the  then  crude  carbolic  acid  in  the  form 
of  a  saponaceous  emulsion.  He  assisted  in  the  work  of  M.  Lemaire, 
of  Paris,  who  has  made  it  the  foundation  of  a  laborious  research. 
The  two  investigators  sent  to  the  Academy  of  Medicine  a  paper  on 
the  value  of  the  emulsion  as  an  application  to  gangrenous  ulcers. 
M.  Lemaire  continued  his  investigation,  and  published  an  elaborate 
treatise  in  1863,  in  which  he  narrated  a  series  of  experiments  in 
which  carbolic  acid  was  employed  as  a  means  for  the  destruction  of 
low  forms  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  as  a  preventative  of  fermen- 
tation and  putrefaction,  as  an  external  application  in  cases  of  ul- 
cerating and  suppurating  surfaces,  as  well  as  an  internal  remedy  in 
zymotic  and  other  diseases.  While  carbolic  acid  was  attracting 
attention  as  a  disinfecting  agent,  experiments  were  being  made  as  to 
its  use  in  the  arts.  Laurent,  in  1841,  after  a  series  of  investigations, 
produced  picric  acid  by  tke  action  of  nitric  acid  upon  carbolic  acid. 
Picric  acid  is  used  as  a  yellow  dye,  and  from  it  are  derived  picramic 
acid  and  isopurpurate  of  ammonium,  yielding  rich  brown  and  garnet 
hues. 
In  1865  Professor  Lister  began  the  use  of  carbolic  acid  in  surgical 
cases  attended  with  suppuration,  and  gave  the  result  of  his  investiga- 
tions in  several  communications  to  the  "Lancet,"  in  the  March  and 
July  numbers  of  1867. 
To  the  pharmaceutist  the  preparations  of  carbolic  acid  are  of  some 
interest,  and  demands  are  often  made  for  the  various  combinations 
without  any  definite  formula. 
A  valuable  work  of  356  pages  has  recently  been  published,  enti- 
