206  Use  of  Boric  Acid  as  a  Disinfectant.  { Am aJ?"^"  i9?|fm" 
This  leads  us  to  a  consideration  of  the  word  private,  which  is  even 
more  obnoxious  to  some  persons  involved  in  enforcing  pharmacy 
ethics  on  their  neighbors,  than  was  the  word  secret  to  the  "  ethical 
purist"  of  the  old-time  medical  code. 
SOME  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  USE  OF  BORIC  ACID 
AS  A  DISINFECTANT.1 
By  Fred.  W.  Tanner  and  Ruth  S.  Funk, 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  URBANA,  ILL. 
Two  general  procedures  are  available  for  the  prevention  of 
premature  death,  building  up  the  body  resistance  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  infective  agents  in  man's  environment.  Among  the  pro- 
cedures which  may  be  used  to  reduce  the  possibility  of  infection 
from  environment,  is  disinfection.  Many  different  chemicals  and 
reagents  are  used  to  destroy  pathogenic  microorganisms  some  of 
which  are  of  undoubted  value  while  others,  even  though  they  may 
have  rather  extended  application,  may  hardly  be  comprehended  as 
having  much  destructive  action  toward  bacteria.  Among  such  a 
class  of  disinfectants  we  might  expect  to  find  boric  acid.  With 
some  practitioners  this  is  regarded  as  an  efficient  bactericide  since 
they  recommend  its  use  at  such  occasions  as  child-birth  and  other 
occasions  where  it  has  been  proven  that  the  bacterial  flora  must  be 
controlled. 
Historical. 
The  literature  is  very  extensive  on  the  use  of  boric  acid  as  a 
food  preservative.  Agulhon2  found  that  boric  acid  solutions  were 
not  antiseptic.  Bernstein3  made  a  rather  careful  study  of  the  use 
of  this  compound  as  a  food  preservative  and  secured  some  data 
which  may  be  of  interest  in  this  connection.  He  reported  a  marked 
selective  action  on  microorganisms  inhibiting  yeasts  and  members  of 
1  From  the  Laboratories  of  Bacteriology  of  the  University  of  Illinois, 
Urbana,  111. 
2  Agulhon,  Are  Boric  Acid  Solutions  Antiseptic,  Rev.  mens.  med.  prat., 
1912,  51. 
3  Bernstein,  J.,  Preliminary  Note  on  a  New  Aspect  of  the  Effects  of  Boric 
Acid  as  a  Food  Preservative,  Brit.  Med.  Jour.,  No.  2572,  928-9. 
